Marie-Anne Félix
Evolution of Caenorhabditis
Our general approach is to study the evolution of biological systems in a quantitative manner, joining evolutionary genetics and system biology in a synthetic framework.
The team thus combines evolutionary, ecological and quantitative biology approaches to the biology of a major model organism, the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans. A constant focus in the team concerns studies of the robustness, evolution and evolvability of a model system in developmental biology, C. elegans vulval cell fate patterning. We also pioneered the isolation of natural populations of C. elegans and relatives. We study their outcrossing rate, demographic and genetic population structure and biotic associations. We study the evolutionary variation in phenotype of the C. elegans wild isolates, including their interactions with viruses, bacteria and microsporidia and their reproduction and other life history characteristics.
Research Topics
- Evolutionary system biology: Quantitative evolution of an intercellular signaling network, experimental modulation and computational modeling, evolution of the genotype-phenotype map
- Natural populations of Caenorhabditis: Habitat, new species, population structure and reproductive modes
- Host-parasite evolution: Microbes associated with Caenorhabditis species (virus, bacteria, microsporidia, etc.), coevolution of nematodes and their parasites, evolution of small-RNA pathways
- Quantitative genetics: Characterization and molecular identification of intraspecific genetic variation underlying the evolution in various phenotypes (development, immunity, reproduction).
Nematode strain collection of the team: http://www.justbio.com/worms/index.php
Selected Recent Publications
Frézal, L., Demoinet, E., Braendle, C., Miska, E# and Félix, M.-A.# (2018). Natural genetic variation in a multigenerational phenotype in C. elegans. Current Biology 28, 2588-2596. Link
Richaud, A., Zhang, G., Lee, D. Lee, J. and Félix, M-A. (2018). The local co-existence pattern of selfing genotypes in Caenorhabditis elegans natural metapopulations. Genetics 208, 807-821. Link
Besnard, F.*, Koutsovoulos, G.*, Dieudonné, S., Blaxter, M.# and Félix, M.-A.# Towards universal forward genetics: using a draft genome sequence of the nematode Oscheius tipulae to identify mutations affecting vulva development. Genetics 206, 1747-1761. Link
Schulenburg, H., and Félix, M.-A. (2017). The natural biotic environment of C. elegans. Genetics 206, 55-86. Link
Samuel, B.S., Rowedder, H., Braendle, C., Félix, M.-A.* and Ruvkun, G.* (2016). Caenorhabditis elegans responses to bacteria from its natural habitats. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 113, E3941-3949. Link
Barkoulas, M.*#, Vargas Velazquez, A.M*, Peluffo, A.E. and Félix, M.-A.# (2016). Evolution of new cis-regulatory motifs required for cell-specific gene expression in Caenorhabditis. PLOS Genetics 12, e1006278. Link
Félix, M.-A. and Barkoulas, M. (2015) Pervasive robustness in biological systems. Nature Reviews Genetics 16, 483-496. Link
