Permanent staff

Photo (c) IRD

Research interest

My research focuses on the origins, diversity and adaptations of the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) and the genus Phoenix. I conduct this research in a multi-disciplinary framework: population genetics, paleogenomics, archaeometrics, ethnobotany are the disciplines I practice to fully understand the evolutionary history of the date palm. I am currently co-PI (with Dr. Battesti, CNRS) of the “Date palm agrobiodiversity in al-Ula”, a project focusing on the diversity and evolution of date palms in this oasis of Northwestern Saudi Arabia (2019-2022).

Education

2009 - 2012

Doctorate in Biology « Origins, evolutionary and biogeographical history of the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.): The contribution of genetic and morphometrics ». Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Montpellier & Institut des Sciences de l’Évolution de Montpellier, France

2007 -2009

Master 1 & 2 Biodiversity & Ecology. U. Fourier, Grenoble, France

2006 -2007

Master 1 Paleontology, aleobiology, Phylogeny. U. Montpellier II, France

2005- 2006

Licence 3 Biology. U. of Sussex, UK (Erasmus fellowhip)

2003- 2005

Licence 1 & 2 Biology & Géology. U. Fourier, Grenoble, France

2003

Baccalauréat Scientifique (High school diploma)

Previous positions

2018-2020

Research scientist. New York University Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

2013-2014

Postdoctorate in the Wegmann Lab. U. Fribourg, Switzerland

2015-2016

Marie Curie fellowship. SupAgro Montpellier, France

Publications

Flowers, J.M., Hazzouri, K.M., Lemansour, A., Capote, T., Gros-Balthazard, M., Ferrand, S., Lebrun, M., Amiri, K.M.A., Purugganan, M.D., 2022. Patterns of Volatile Diversity Yield Insights Into the Genetics and Biochemistry of the Date Palm Fruit Volatilome. Front. Plant Sci. 13, 853651

Pérez-Escobar OA, Bellot S, Przelomska NAS, Flowers JM, Nesbitt M, Ryan P, Gutaker RM, Gros-Balthazard M, Wells T, Kuhnhäuser BG, Schley R, Bogarín D, Dodsworth S, Diaz R, Lehmann M, Petoe P, Eiserhardt WL, Preick M, Hofreiter M, Hajdas I, Purugganan M, Antonelli A, Gravendeel B, Leitch IJ, Torres Jimenez MF, Papadopulos AST, Chomicki G, Renner SS, Baker WJ (2021) Molecular Clocks and Archeogenomics of a Late Period Egyptian Date Palm Leaf Reveal Introgression from Wild Relatives and Add Timestamps on the Domestication. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 38(10):4475-4492

Gros-Balthazard, M., Baker, W. J., Leitch, I. J., Pellicer, J., Powell, R. F., & Bellot, S. (2021). Systematics and Evolution of the Genus Phoenix: Towards Understanding Date Palm Origins. In J. M. Al-Khayri, S. M. Jain, & D. V Johnson (Eds.), The Date Palm Genome, Vol. 1: Phylogeny, Biodiversity and Mapping (pp. 29-54). Springer International Publishing.

Gros-Balthazard, M., & Flowers, J. M. (2021). A Brief History of the Origin of Domesticated Date Palms. In J. M. Al-Khayri, S. M. Jain, & D. V Johnson (Eds.), The Date Palm Genome, Vol. 1: Phylogeny, Biodiversity and Mapping (pp. 55-74). Springer International Publishing.

Gros-Balthazard M., Flowers J. M., Hazzouri K. M., Ferrand S., Aberlenc F., Sallon S., Purugganan M. D. The genomes of ancient date palms germinated from 2,000 y old seeds. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences May 2021, 118 (19) e2025337118; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2025337118

Gros-Balthazard M.*, Battesti V.*, Ivorra S., Paradis L., Aberlenc F., Zango O., Zehdi S., Moussouni S., Naqvi S.A., Newton C., Terral J.-F. On the necessity of combining ethnobotany and genetics to assess agrobiodiversity and its evolution in crops: a case study on date palms (Phoenix dactylifera L.) in Siwa Oasis, Egypt. Evolutionary Applications. 2020; 00: 1–23. DOI: 10.1111/eva.12930.

Sallon S., Solowey E., Egli M., Gros-Balthazard M., Cherif E., Terral J.-F., Ivorra S., Chabrillange N., Aberlenc F. Origins and insights into the historic Judean date palm based on germinated ancient seeds. Science Advances. 2020; 6: eaax0384. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aax0384.

Hazzouri K. M.*, Gros-Balthazard M.*, Flowers J. M.*, Copetti D., Lemansour A., Lebrun M., Masoudi K., Ferrand S., Dhar M. I., Fresquez Z., Rosas U., Zhang J., Talag J., Lee S., Kdurna D., Powell R. F., Leitch I., Krueger R., Wing R., Amiri K. M. A., Purugganan M. Genome-wide association mapping in date palms reveals parallel evolution of fruit traits. Nature Communications. 2020; 10: 4680. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-12604-9.

Gros-Balthazard M., Besnard G., Sarah G., Holz Y., Leclerc J., Santoni S., Wegmann D., Glémin S.*, Khadari B.*  Evolutionary transcriptomics reveals the origins of olives and the genomic changes associated with their domestication. The Plant Journal. 2019; 100: 143-157. DOI: 10.1111/tpj.14435.

Flowers J.M., Hazzouri K.M., Gros-Balthazard M., Mo Z., Koutroumpa K., Perrakis A., Ferrand S., Kierrallah H.S.M., Fuller D., Aberlenc F., Fournaraki C., Purugganan M. Cross-species hybridization and the origin of North African date palms. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2019; 116(5) 1651-1658. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1817453116.

Gros-Balthazard M., Hazzouri K.M., Flowers J.M. Genomic insights into date palm domestication. Genes. 2018; 9(502): 1–14. DOI: 10.3390/genes9100502.

Battesti V.*, Gros-Balthazard M.*, Ogeron C., Ivorra S., Terral J.-F., Newton C. Date palm agrobiodiversity (Phoenix dactylifera L.) in Siwa oasis, Egypt: Combining ethnography, morphometry and genetics. Human Ecology. 2018; 46(4): 529-546. DOI: 10.1007/s10745-018-0006-y.

Gros-Balthazard M., Galimberti M., Kousathanas A., Newton C., Ivorra S., Paradis L., Vigouroux Y., Carter R., Tengberg M., Battesti V., Santoni S., Falquet L., Pintaud J.-C., Terral J.-F.*, Wegmann D.* The Discovery of Wild Date Palms in Oman Reveals a Complex Domestication History Involving Centers in the Middle East and Africa. Current Biology. 2017; 27(14): 2211–2218.e8. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.06.045.

Zango O., Cherif E., Chabrillange N., Zehdi-Azouzi S., Gros-Balthazard M., Naqvi S.A., Lemansour A., Rey H., Bakasso Y., and Aberlenc F. Genetic diversity of Southeastern Nigerien date palms reveals a secondary structure within Western populations. Tree Genetics and Genomes. 2017; 13: 75. DOI: 10.1007/s11295-017-1150-z.

Gros-Balthazard M., Newton C., Ivorra S., Pierre M.-H., Pintaud J.-C., Terral J.-F. The domestication syndrome in Phoenix dactylifera seeds: Toward the identification of wild date palm populations. PLoS One. 2016; 11(3): e0152394. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0152394.

Zehdi-Azouzi S., Cherif E. Moussouni S., Gros-Balthazard M., Naqvi S.A., Ludeña B., Castillo K., Chabrillange N., Bouguedourra N., Bennaceur M., Si-Dehbi F., Abdoulkader S., Daher A., Terral J.-F., Santoni S., Ballardini M., Mercuri A., Ben Salah M., Kadri K., Othmani A., Littardi C., Salhi-Hannachi A., Pintaud J.-C., Aberlenc F. Genetic structure of the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) in the Old World reveals a strong differentiation between eastern and western populations. Annals of Botany. 2015; 116(1): 101-112. DOI: 10.1093/aob/mcv068.

Aberlenc-Bertossi F., Castillo K., Dubreuil-Tranchant C., Cherif E., Ballardini M., Abdoulkader S., Gros-Balthazard M., Chabrillange N., Santoni S., Mercuri A., Pintaud J.-C. In silico mining of microsatellites (SSR) in coding sequences of the date palm genome, characterization and transferability. Applications in Plant Sciences. 2014; 2(1): 1300058. DOI: 10.3732/apps.1300058.

Burger P., Gros-Balthazard M., Stacey R.J. Molecular and isotopic analysis of the tars from the Newport Medieval Ship. Newport Medieval Ship Project Archive, Archaeological Data Service. 2014.

Gros-Balthazard M. Hybridization in the genus Phoenix: a review. Emirates Journal of Food and Agriculture. 2013; 25(11): 831-842. DOI: 10.9755/ejfa.v25i11.16660.

Newton C., Gros-Balthazard M., Ivorra S., Pintaud J.-C., Terral J.-F. Phoenix dactylifera and P. sylvestris in North-Western India: A glimpse of their complex relationships. Palms. 2013; 57(1):37-50.

Gros-Balthazard M., Newton C., Ivorra S., Tengberg M., Pintaud J.-C., Terral J.-F. Origines et domestication du palmier-dattier (Phoenix dactylifera L.): État de l’art et perspectives d’étude. Revue d’ethnoécologie. 2013; 4. DOI: 10.4000/ethnoecologie.1524.

Newton C., Terral J.-F., Ivorra S., Gros-Balthazard M., Tito de Morais C., Picq S., Tengberg M., Pintaud J.-C. Graines d’histoire : Approche morphométrique de l'agrobiodiversité du palmier dattier, actuelle et d'Égypte ancienne. Revue d’ethnoécologie. 2013; 4. DOI: 10.4000/ethnoecologie.1580.

Pintaud J.-C., Ludeña B., Zehdi S., Gros-Balthazard M., Ivorra S., Terral J.-F., Newton C., Tengberg M., Santoni S., Moussouni S., Si-Dehbi F., Boughedoura N. Biogeography of the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L., Arecaceae): insights on the origin and on the structure of modern diversity. Acta Horticulturae 2013; 994 | International Symposium on Date Palm: 17-36. DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2013.994.1.

Terral J.-F., Newton C., Ivorra S., Gros-Balthazard M., Tito de Morais C., Picq S., Tengberg M., Pintaud J.-C. Insights into the historical biogeography of the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) using geometric morphometry of modern and ancient seeds. Journal of Biogeography. 2012; 39(5): 929-941. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2699.2011.02649.x.

Pagès M., Chevret P., Gros-Balthazard M., Hughes S., Alcover J. A., Hutterer R., Rando J. C., Michaux J., Hänni C. Paleogenetic analyses reveal unsuspected phylogenetic affinities between mice and the extinct Malpaisomys insularis, an Endemic Rodent of the Canaries. PLoS One 2012; 7(2): e31123. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0031123.

* authors contributed equally