ERC Starting grant - GAIA - Funded!
The project ERC GAIA : "A Genomic and Macroevolutionary Approach to Studying Diversification in an Insect Plant Arms Race" have been funded for 5 years (2020-2025). The project is leaded by Fabien Condamine
This project will study the insect/host plant coevolution using the swallowtails butterflies (Papilionidae) as model (some examples below)
I will be involved in most of the bioinformatic of this project and mainly in the Work package 3.
This work package is dedicated to identifying genomic signatures associated with ancient and recent host-plant shifts We will perform a genomic survey of molecular evolution in swallowtail butterflies in order to reveal the genomic consequences of host-plant shifts versus host-plant conservatism as revealed by the ancestral states reconstructions. The questions we aim to answer by the completion of this WP are: (1) What genomic changes have evolved in response to the selective constraints imposed by the host-plant shifts versus conservatism? (2) Do the same genomic changes underlie host-plant shifts to different host-plant families in independent butterfly lineages? (3) How widespread is positive selection for shifting/non-shifting butterfly lineages?
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Papilio glaucus https://www.inaturalist.org/photos/54584027 ©roamingthewoods
