Plant genetics captivated me when I was still a biology student. Since graduating, I have dedicated a good part of my scientific career to studying the genetic basis of plant response to abiotic stresses.
About ten years ago, I became interested in the scenario of climate change and its effect on trees. I was convinced that a phenomenon as complex as this required a multidisciplinary approach in which genomic tools had much to contribute. Thus, we are studying the phenomenon with two global approaches.
On the one hand, structural genomics (Genotyping By Sequencing, GBS) is allowing us to characterize the variability in natural populations threatened by warming and identify signatures of selection associated with drought mortality. On the other hand, with a functional genomics approach, using RNA-seq, we are trying to characterize the global gene response in this context.
In addition, since we consider the effect of global change on plants in a framework of high complexity, we try to complete the picture by taking into account the role of epigenetics in the observed phenotypic plasticity.
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