MEEBIO team

MEEBIO : Macroevolution, Evolutionary Ecology & Biodiversity dynamics

TEAM LEADER : Sébastien LAVERGNE

The genuine objective of the MEEBio team is to understand and reconstruct how biodiversity has evolved and diversified along environmental gradients, how its spatial structure has been shaped by past environmental changes, and how it is currently adapting to ongoing climatic forcing and human activities (e.g., land use, pollutants). To do so, the research conducted in this team brings together the study of environmental acclimatization at the scale of individuals, the inference of microevolutionary processes within and between populations, and the study of speciation, phenotypic evolution and clade diversification at macroevolutionary scales. We thus attempt to integrate data and methods from various fields such as phylogenomics, population genomics, phylogeography, epigenetics, transcriptomics, phylogenetic comparative methods, environmental metabarcoding, experimental ecotoxicology, and functional genomics.

Diagram depicting the study scales and gradients of the MEEBio team. These are different levels of biological organization, different timescales and different environmental gradients. See text for more details.

 
The structure of research activities within this team is well reflected by two axes : Historical biogeography (Axis 1) and Biology of adaptation (Axis 2). As depicted in the figure above, these two axes both focus on a variety of scales of biological organization (from individuals to entire biomes), on several timescales (from a few hours to millions of years), and also consider various environmental constraints (climate, UV, pollutants) as the major gradients triggering adaptive divergence, driving species diversification and shaping biodiversity distribution.

 

Who is involved ?
 

Researchers / Professors (link) :
– Jean-Marc BONNEVILLE
– Florian BOUCHER
– Eric COISSAC
– Jean-Philippe DAVID
– Laurence DESPRES
– Florent FIGON
– Christelle GONINDARD
– Matthias GRENIE

 

– Sébastien IBANEZ
– Sébastien LAVERGNE
– Jesus MAVAREZ
– François POMPANON
– Muriel RAVETON
– Stéphane REYNAUD
– Sophie SRODA
– Glenn YANNIC

 

Technical staff (link) :
– Frédéric BOYER
– Nadine CURT-GRAND-GAUDIN
– Thierry GAUDE
– Frédéric LAPORTE
– Christian MIQUEL
– Sophie PERIGON
– Delphine RIOUX
– Nathalie TISSOT
– Sylvie VEYRENC

 

Associated projects : (link)
Local : Labex OSUG Refugia, IDEX Enigma, Projet Région ARA "TigerWatch", Projet ANSES TigeRisk, Labex OSUG Albodif, Projets Pôle Biodiversité Isère
National : ANR Origin-Alps, France Génomique, Subvention OFB Lagunes, ANR DivAlps, ANR Evosheep, ANR Alpalga
International : EU H2020 ZIKalliance, Vargoats initiative, Espeletia Genome Project

Stakeholder involvement : Parcs Nationaux (Ecrins, Vanoise, Mercantour), Conservatoires Botaniques Nationaux (Alpin, Méditerranéen), Conservatoires Régionaux des Espaces Naturels, Réserves Nationales, Parcs Naturels Regionaux, Espaces Naturels Sensibles, Rovaltain, Agences de Démoustication, Worldwide Insecticide Resistance Network, Office Français de la Biodiversité, associations naturalistes (Gentiana, OPIE, FLAVIA), CREA Chamonix

Associated research infrastructure : Centre National du Séquençage (Genoscope, Evry), Jardin du Lautaret, Zone Atelier Alpes, FREE Alpes, Genotoul (GeT) Toulouse, Institut Pasteur, EGCE Gif sur Yvette, ISEM Montpellier, CEFE Montpellier, Genscale (INRIA, Rennes), Institut Pasteur, Genphyse (INRAE, Toulouse), CAGT Toulouse, ArchéOrient Lyon, University of Amsterdam, Kew Gardens

Focal organisms : The main biological models encompass several alpine plant clades of temperate and tropical regions (European Alpine System, Arctic Flora, Tropical Andes), invasive plants and plants showing high tolerance to pollutants (Phragmites, Miscanthus, ...), soil microbial communities, various groups of arthropods (butterflies, mosquitoes, springtails), amphibians, wild and domestic ruminants (e.g. Rupicapra, Capra, Ovis), and some bird clades. An important emphasis is put on continental insular systems such as high alpine biomes (both tropical and temperate) or salt flats’ landscapes (e.g. Uyuni salar).

Scales : All scales of biological organization (intra-individual organs, individuals, specific clades, entire biomes). Multiple timescales, from a few hours to millions of years.

Empirical approaches : Insect and animal rearing and experimentation through multiple generations (P2+ insectaries, amphibian facilities), plant culture in greenhouses and growth chambers, field experiments, molecular genetics

Data types : Whole genome sequencing, low coverage shotgun sequencing, ddRAD sequencing, environmental metabarcoding, transcriptomics, phenotypic measurements, plant functional traits, paleogeomorphological and paleoenvironmental data

Analytical approaches : phylogenomics, bioinformatics, phylogenetic comparative methods, stochastic models, statistical phylogeography, approximate bayesian computation, genomic scans, historical biogeography, fossil dating

 

Projects
248

Axis 2 : Biology of adaptation

This axis aims at understanding the nature and mechanisms of adaptation to natural environmental gradients but also to anthropogenic alterations of natural biota. It is organized around three key challenges.

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