INRA AVIGNON. FRANCIA.
SYLVIE ODDOU-MURATORIO
INRA-AVIGNON
RESUMEN (ABSTRACT)
To survive the observed and predicted climatic trends, animal and plant populations will have to adapt locally and/or to migrate toward higher latitudes/ altitudes. The adaptive potential of natural populations is determined by evolutionary forces (selection, gene flow, genetic drift) and by the genetic variation available within the populations. Migration abilities on the other side depend on individual fertility, on the shape and range of dispersal and on post-dispersal processes affecting individual establishment. Understanding the effects of selection and gene flow on the adaptive dynamics of populations has been one of the main objectives of modern evolutionary ecology for decades. However, the recent development of highly variable molecular markers and high-throughput gene sequencing is providing evolutionary ecologist with new tools to address these issues.
Forest trees are sessile long-lived organisms, and thus their selection /migration / drift equilibrium might put them at a disadvantage whenever the environment changes abruptly. Because of low domestication, large open-pollinated native populations, and high levels of both genetic and phenotypic variation, trees have gained much attention in recent years as model species for addressing the respective role of selection and migration in the response to climate change. I will first show how recent molecular-based approaches allowed a better understanding of seed and pollen migration abilities in trees. Then, I will review recent population genomics studies in model tree species, and show how population-level candidate gene nuclear DNA sequence information has proven useful for reconstructing historical demographic processes and for identifying genes that have contributed to local adaptation. Finally, I will present some recent studies in our group based on high-throughput sequencing/genotyping technologies in the non-model species Fagus sylvatica for search of signatures of past demography and selection.