Aurélie Bonin (Visiting Scientist)

E-mail: a.boninDiversityArrays.com

I am an evolutionary biology interested in the use of population genomics (i.e., the study of many molecular makers) to disentangle the influence of evolutionary forces on the genome. In particular, population genomics is a valuable tool to detect loci under natural selection on the basis on their atypical genetic variability compared to the rest of the genome. I recently completed my PhD degree at the Laboratoire d’Ecologie Alpine in Grenoble (France) where I worked on the identification of loci involved in adaptation to altitude in a non-model species, the common frog (Rana temporaria) using a population genomics approach. For a summary (in French) and pdf files of the relevant publications, please see http://www-leca.ujf-grenoble.fr/membres/bonin.htm

In June 2006, I started my post-doctoral project about the genetic basis of mosquito tolerance to the insecticide toxins produced by the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis var. israelis (Bti). For this purpose, I will work on natural populations of the mosquito species Aedes rusticus and laboratory strains of the mosquito model species Aedes aegypti. Until June 2007, I will be part of the DArT team and I aim at developing DArT markers for my two study species. As the DArT technique enables a thorough screening of the genome, without any prior sequence knowledge, it should help us detecting selection signatures at the genome scale. The markers presumably under selection (i.e., involved in tolerance to Bti) can then be sequenced, offering the opportunity to identify the underlying genes by comparative genomics.

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