Presentation
Our research displays a strong interest in the interplay between development, genome and evolution. We see biological systems as the products of development - assisted by the genome, but also as the products of evolution - mediated by the genome. As such both the development and the genome can orient possible routes of evolution.
- We study genome expression and its developmental dynamics as an entry point and are specialized in handling transcriptome data in different species and in a developmental context (more about it here, see our paper in Genome Biology, and the associated insight by I. Yanai; and our review in JZB).
- Several projects are focused on cases of repeated evolution (convergent evolution): looking for specific developmental and/or genomic properties associated with repeated evolution (more about it here, here and here; see an Insight by C. Roseman about our recent work here).
- We are also interested in the evolution of development in relation to the evolution of morphologies. We use a very powerful model system, the rodent molar, studied since the 19th century, and cutting edge approaches at the interface of evolutionary developmental biology and evolutionary genomics (more about it here, see our latest preprint here).
- With our collaborators, we also built in-house tools to assemble transcriptomes (CAARS), detect convergent amino acid evolution (PCOC)
, compare transcriptomic temporal profiles (see here) but also date embryos (see here) or recontruct temporal dynamics from series of fixed embryos (see here).
The team is headed by Marie Sémon (Professor, ENS Lyon) and Sophie Pantalacci (DR2, CNRS) who bring their complementary expertise in (respectively) evolutionary genomics and evo-devo.