Archives de l’auteur : mjoron
Two PhD chapters submitted!
Well done to Pierre Lacoste and Riccardo Poloni who submitted their first manuscripts from their PhDs ! Both on polymophic Lepidoptera. Lacoste et al. shows the results of mate choice experiments in the tropical butterfly Heliconius numata in French Guiana. … Continuer la lecture
Inversions come with breakpoints!
Congratulations to Romain Villoutreix for this thorough review of supergene structure. Supergenes are classically thought to be formed by the capture of several previously recombining functional mutations. An alternative model is to consider rearrangement breakpoints as a major mutation that … Continuer la lecture
A key role for deleterious mutations
Congratulations to Paul Jay and Mathieu Chouteau for their amazing study now published in Nature Genetics ! The chromosomal inversions bringing great mimicry benefits in Heliconius numata are full of deleterious mutations and insertions of transposable elements. Individual with a … Continuer la lecture
Welcome to Pierre Lacoste
Pierre is joining us for a PhD project on the ecology of mate choice (how do females choose males disassortatively?) and on the functional bases of heterozygote advantage (what’s wrong with inversion homozygotes?). Plenty of field and insectary work ahead. … Continuer la lecture
Are more toxic prey better protected?
This is the question addressed in Mathieu Chouteau’s paper, just published in Animal Behaviour (vol 153:49-59). How do bird predators consider the natural range of variation in toxin load among butterfly species in a community? Mathieu asked chicks what they … Continuer la lecture
Two positions available – Apply now
Two positions are open in my group, to work on the ecology and evolutionary genomics of mimicry supergenes in Heliconius butterflies. 1- A 3-year PhD studentship on the ecology of inversions and balancing selection. The project aims at deciphering the … Continuer la lecture
Alien inversion
May 2018: Congratulations to Paul Jay, Annabel Whibley, Angeles de Cara, Lise Frézal and Reuben Nowell (!) for their paper showing that the supergene was formed via the introgression of an inversion. Supergene alleles evolved their differences and coadaptation in … Continuer la lecture
Polymorphism not maintained by mimicry
July 2017: Congratulations to Mathieu Chouteau for his paper in PNAS, showing how H. numata mate disassortatively with respect to mimetic wing pattern. Polymorphism is not maintained by mimicry, really!
