INRA-CNRS
- Doctorant
Paris
2006 - 2010
To better understand the molecular mechanisms that drive evolution, I decided to do a PhD focusing on the molecular side of evolution. During my PhD project, I focused on the evolution of a multigenic family encoding ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase (AGPase), a heterotetrameric key enzyme involved in starch biosynthesis. At an interspecific scale, I detected several sites under positive selection following both, gene duplications and the monoct-dicot divergence and detected coevolution between residues within the AGPase small subunit. I subsequently investigated the evolution of AGPase paralogous genes in maize. The goal of this approach was to understand how paralogs react to a strong selection pressure, and I took maize domestication as a model to answer this question. Using a population-level approach, I showed that some paralogous gene have been targeted by selection either during the domestication or maize breeding processes and I detected both directional selection and diversifying selection. Interestingly, results at the interspecific scale and the intraspecific scale sharply contrast.
