Bdelloid rotifers are of particular interest to biologists. Their unique clonal mode of reproduction, their extreme resistance to desiccation and radiation, together with their ready accessibility to laboratory experimentation, make this group an unusual, attractive model to study the consequences of a long-term asexual evolution and extreme resistance. We have several ongoing research projects on this unique animal model:
Rotifers Highlight the Evolution of Asexuals: the mechanisms of genome evolution in the absence of meiosis (RHEA)
My new ERC Consolidator grant investigates the mechanisms that prevent genome deterioration and promote diversification in the absence of sexual reproduction (including meiosis and fertilization) in the parthenogenetic bdelloid rotifers. This proposal will also try to provide a new biological model system to study fundamental processes such as DNA double strand break repair, since bdelloid rotifers survive massive genome breakage induced by ionizing radiation.
2017-2022
Evolutionary genetics and ecology: studying evolutionary processes at the population level
In addition to their famous ancient asexuality, bdelloid rotifers have the capacity to desiccate at any stage of their life cycle and be carried by the wind as dried propagules. This characteristic enables bdelloid rotifers to colonize unpredictable semi-terrestrial niches such as mosses and lichens and to disperse. We are studying the genetic diversity of bdelloid species and seek to understand the spatial and temporal dynamics of bdelloid communities at local scale.
- 2007-2012: FRIA PhD grant to Xiang LI
- 2009-2012: FNRS FRFC grant 2.4.655.09.F “The evolutionary genetics and ecology of the invasive Asian clam (Corbicula spp.) in Europe, and of the ancient asexual bdelloid rotifers.”
- 2012-2016: FRIA PhD grant to Nicolas Debortoli
- 2012-2017: non-funded partner of the IAP grant “Spatial and environmental determinants of eco-evolutionary dynamics: anthropogenic environments as a model”
Evolutionary and comparative genomics: studying evolutionary processes at the genome level
Bdelloid rotifers are those notorious asexual metazoans for which we have positive evidence of long-term asexuality. The recent sequencing of the genome of the bdelloid Adineta vaga, coordinated by our laboratory, revealed a genome structure incompatible with meiosis, as genomic regions are shuffled across chromosomes with no homologous pairs being present (Flot et al., 2013 in Nature). We now seek to understand how genomic diversification and homogenization is acquired in A. vaga in the absence of meiotic recombination. Ongoing research largely focuses on the impact of desiccation and radiation on genome and transcriptome evolution and the origin and evolution of gene duplications and functional divergence in experimental A. vaga lines.
- 2009-2013: GENOSCOPE Genome sequencing project of the bdelloid rotifer Adineta vaga co-financed by GIS IBISA (France), FNRS and UNamur (Belgium) – publication in Nature (Flot et al., 2013)
- 2010-2012: FRFC postdoctoral research grant C.O.056.10.F to Jean-François Flot
- 2009-2015: UNamur PhD teaching assistant grant to Boris Hespeels
- 2014-2015: FNRS CDR project 19597258 (DAMAGE: DesiccAtion Modelling the Adineta Genome)
- 2014-2018: FNRS PhD grant to Alessandro Derzelle (DYsCOVER: DYnamic COpy Variant numbER)
- 2015-2018: FNRS MIS project 23682193 (BRidGE: Bdelloid Recombination and Genome Evolution)
- Since 2016: FRANCE GENOMIQUE genome sequencing project entitled: “Asexual Lineages and Populations of Animals: a Genomic Analysis (ALPAGA)”
Adineta vaga as a new model organism to study DNA repair and oxidative stress
Our ARC project, in collaboration with Prof. Bernard Hallet (UCL) and Dr. Florence Chainiaux (UNamur) is investigating the DNA repair mechanism of A. vaga using transcriptomics and gene expression analyses, and oxidative stress responses following desiccation and radiation.
- 2014-2017: FNRS postdoc grant (Chargé de Recherche) to Matthieu Terwagne
- 2014-2019: Projet ARC (Actions de Recherche Concertées, Académie Universitaire ‘Louvain’) entitled: “Bdelloid rotifers : another gift from nature?”
- 2016-2020: ESA project entitled: “Rotifers in Space (RISE)”. The experiments Rotifer-B1 and Rotifer-B2 will be launched on Space X to ISS end 2019 and beginning 2020
- 2018-2022: FRIA PhD grant to Rohan Arora
