Evolution, Behaviour, Adaptation Group

Members

The Evolution, Adaptation and Behavior group aims at studying the evolution of phenotypic and behavioral traits through a combination of long-term monitoring of natural populations, of field and lab experiments, of molecular analyses, and of mathematical and computational modeling. Our research mainly focuses on animals, in particular mammals (alpine marmot, giraffe), birds (white-throated dipper, collared flycatcher, great tit) and insects (various Drosophila species, the parasitoid wasp Venturia canescens).

 
We study the evolution of fitness-related traits in interaction, either selective or plastic, with an individual’s biotic and abiotic environment. Interactions between individuals have a special importance in our reasoning and are thus the object of a first axis of research on group dynamics and social interactions. We also consider the environment as providing resources and informative signals through two other axes, one on phenotypic plasticity and the other on resource allocation and the sensitivity to environmental variables. In both, we consider the impact of stress factors caused by human activities — such as global warming, artificial lighting or invading species — or by the presence of pathogens.
 
 
Group dynamics and social interaction. The environment encountered by numerous animals contains, on top of resources and other elements, other individuals. Social interactions vary immensely between species, from a solitary lifestyle to such an extreme degree of cooperation that a part of the group sacrifices their reproduction at the benefit of others, specialized in this task. In this axis, we try to understand how groups form and how social structures are maintained, at various scales extending from unicellular organisms to cooperative mammals.
Here are a few examples of questions that we address:

  • Evolution of sociality: what are the consequences of climate change on the benefits of group living (in the alpine marmot)? How does that impact group composition and the probability and age of dispersal?
  • Group dynamics: how does the size and composition of familial groups evolve in the context of climate change? In giraffes, how do temporary groups form, and what role do kinship play in the probability and duration of pairing?
  • Which evolutionary trajectories have led to multicellular organisms expressing differentiated cell types, a part of which sacrifice their reproduction?
  • What are the neurogenomic determinants that signal the presence of related individuals in solitary individuals, triggering altruistic behaviors?

 
Phenotypic plasticity. Evolution by natural selection can drive phenotype changes on short timescales, in the order of a few generations. Yet it remains inefficient to track more frequent environmental changes. Phenotypic plasticity is a means to buffer such environmental variations, either through informed decisions or fixed reaction norms, which are the object of study in this axis.
Here are a few examples of questions that we address:

  • How do individual characteristics, in particular personality traits, shape the use of information on the environment for decision-making?
  • Is there a trade-off between the speed of decision making and its accuracy? What conditions favor genotypes that make fast, error-prone decisions, or slower, more accurate genotypes?
  • What types of environmental variations select for plastic genotypes?
  • Do changes in gene expression observed during environmental fluctuations induce behavioral changes?

 
Resource allocation and sensitivity to environmental variables. Organisms make other decisions throughout their lives as they decide how much resources to allocate to various traits, such as survival, growth, reproduction or immunity. This differential allocation of resources relies on complex systems, or instance the endocrine system in animals, that we study. These systems can be disturbed by anthropogenic changes that disrupt the long-term ecological setting in which they have evolves, resulting in major phenotype perturbations.
Here are a few examples of questions that we address:

  • How do endocrine systems — that allow the communication between tissues and control the differential allocation of resources — evolve?
  • How do chemical pollutants affect physiological processes, ageing and thereby life-history strategies in response to environmental variation?
  • What role do climatic fluctuations play in the heterogeneity of parasite infection, especially at stages that go through the external environment?

 

Publications

Display of 241 to 270 publications on 449 in total

Vector-Borne Diseases in the light of Evolutionary Ecology : example of Chagas disease

Frédéric Menu, M. Ginoux, Anne Nguyen, J. Rabinovich, S. Gourbière

Vector-Borne Disease : a multidisciplany approach .

Conference paper

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Comparing parent-offspring regression with frequentist and Bayesian animal models to estimate heritability in wild populations: a simulation study for Gaussian and binary traits

P. De Villemereuil, Olivier Gimenez, Blandine Doligez

Methods in Ecology and Evolution . 4 : 260-275

DOI: 10.1111/2041-210x.12011

Journal article

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Resistance of Drosophila suzukii to the larval parasitoids Leptopilina heterotoma and Asobara japonica is related to haemocyte load

Mathilde Poyet, Sebastien Havard, Geneviève Prevost, Olivier Chabrerie, Géraldine Doury, Patricia Gibert...

Physiological Entomology . 38 ( 1 ) : 45 - 53

DOI: 10.1111/phen.12002

Journal article

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Fluctuating food resources influence developmental plasticity in wild boar

Marlène Gamelon, M. Douhard, E. Baubet, O. Gimenez, S. Brandt, Jm. Gaillard

Biology Letters . 9 ( 5 ) : 20130419

DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2013.0419

Journal article

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Variation in adult body mass of roe deer: early environmental conditions influence early and late body growth of females

Mathieu Douhard, Jean-Michel Gaillard, Daniel Delorme, Gilles Capron, Patrick Duncan, François Klein...

Ecology . 94 ( 8 ) : 1805-1814

DOI: 10.1890/13-0034.1

Journal article

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Does cold tolerance plasticity correlate with the thermal environment and metabolic profiles of a parasitoid wasp ?

Vincent Foray, Emmanuel Desouhant, Yann Voituron, Vanessa Larvor, David Renault, Hervé Colinet...

Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology - Part A: Molecular and Integrative Physiology . 164 : 77-83

DOI: 10.1016/j.cbpa.2012.10.018

Journal article

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The evolution of genetic architectures underlying quantitative traits

E. Rajon, J. B. Plotkin

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences . 280 : 20131552

DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2013.1552

Journal article

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Endosymbiont diversity among sibling weevil species competing for the same resource

Adrien Merville, Samuel Venner, Hélène Henri, Agnès Vallier, Frédéric Menu, Fabrice Vavre...

BMC Evolutionary Biology . 13 : 28

DOI: 10.1186/1471-2148-13-28

Journal article

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Influence of vectors' risk-spreading strategies and environmental stochasticity on the epidemiology and evolution of vector-borne diseases: the example of chagas' disease.

Perrine Pelosse, Christopher M Kribs-Zaleta, Marine Ginoux, Jorge E Rabinovich, Sébastien Gourbière, Frédéric Menu

PLoS ONE . 8 ( 8 ) : e70830

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0070830

Journal article

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Estimating demographic parameters from capture-recapture data with dependence among individuals within clusters

Rémi Choquet, Ana Sanz-Aguilar, Blandine Doligez, Erika Nogué, Roger Pradel, Lars Gustafsson...

Methods in Ecology and Evolution . 4 ( 5 ) : 474-482

DOI: 10.1111/2041-210X.12030

Journal article

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Problem-solving performance is correlated with reproductive success in a wild bird population

L. Cauchard, Nj. Boogert, L. Lefebvre, F. Dubois, Blandine Doligez

Animal Behaviour . 85 : 19-26

DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2012.10.005

Journal article

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A Comparison of the Olfactory Gene Repertoires of Adults and Larvae in the Noctuid Moth Spodoptera littoralis

Erwan E. Poivet, Aurore Gallot, Nicolas Montagne, Nicolas Glaser, Fabrice Legeai, Emmanuelle Jacquin-Joly

PLoS ONE . 8 ( 4 ) : e60263

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0060263

Journal article

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Impact of the mate-finding Allee effect on the competitiveness of diploid versus haplodiploid parasitoids: a theoretical approach

Clara Malouines, Anaïs Bompard, Thierry Spataro, Isabelle Amat

Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting .

Conference paper

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Demographic consequences of Complementary Sex Determination in Hymenoptera parasitoids

Anaïs Bompard, Isabelle Amat, Xavier Fauvergue, Thierry Spataro

INTECOL .

Poster

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Roaring counts are not suitable for the monitoring of red deer Cervus elaphus population abundance

M. Douhard, Christophe Bonenfant, Jean-Michel Gaillard, Jl. Hamann, M. Garel, J. Michallet...

Wildlife Biology . 19 : 94-101

DOI: 10.2981/12-037

Journal article

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How does climate change influence demographic processes of widespread species? Lessons from the comparative analysis of contrasted populations of roe deer

Jm. Gaillard, A.J. Mark Hewison, F. Klein, F. Plard, M. Douhard, R. Davison...

Ecology Letters . 16 : 48--57

DOI: 10.1111/ele.12059

Journal article

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Host-Parasitoid Dynamics and the Success of Biological Control When Parasitoids Are Prone to Allee Effects

Anaïs Bompard, Isabelle Amat, Xavier Fauvergue, Thierry Spataro

PLoS ONE . 8 ( 10 ) : e76768

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0076768

Journal article

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A comparison of the olfactory gene repertoires of adults and larvae in the noctuid moth Spodoptera littoralis

Erwan Poivet, Aurore Gallot, Nicolas Montagné, Nicolas Glaser, Fabrice Legeai, Emmanuelle Jacquin-Joly

PLoS ONE . 8 ( 4 ) : e60263

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0060263

Journal article

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Sequence polymorphism of nematode effectors highlights molecular differences among the subspecies of the tobacco cyst nematode complex

Charline Alenda, Aurore Gallot-Le Grand, Didier Fouville, Eric Grenier

Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology . 84 : 107-114

DOI: 10.1016/j.pmpp.2013.08.004

Journal article

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LA SANTÉ ANIMALE PERÇUE À LA LUMIÈRE DE L’ÉCOLOGIE ET DE L’ÉVOLUTION

Dominique Pontier, David Fouchet

Bulletin académique des vétérinaires de France . ( 1-4 ) : 354

DOI: 10.4267/2042/53062

Journal article

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Influence of vector spatial dispersal on virulence evolution and prevalence of pathogen in stochastic environment, example of Chagas disease

Anne Nguyen, David Fouchet, Etienne Rajon, Dominique Pontier, B. Siberchicot, J. Rabinovich...

Modelling Biological Evolution 2013 : Recent Progress, Current Challenges and Future Directions .

Conference paper

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Differential association between circulating testosterone and infection risk by several viruses in natural cat populations: a behavioural-mediated effect?

E. Hellard, D. Fouchet, B. Rey, A. Mouchet, H. Poulet, D. Pontier

Parasitology . 140 ( 4 ) : 521-9

DOI: 10.1017/S0031182012001862

Journal article

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Occurrence of arrhenotoky and thelytoky in a parasitic wasp Venturia canescens(Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae): Effect of endosymbionts or existence of twodistinct reproductive modes?

Vincent Foray, Hélène Henri, Sonia Martinez, Patricia Gibert, Emmanuel Desouhant

European Journal of Entomology . 110 : 103-107

Journal article

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Exploitation de la plante hôte pour l’alimentation et la reproduction

D. Rochat, Emmanuel Desouhant, Frédéric Menu

Interactions insectes-plantes . 978-2-7592-2018-2 : 263-270

Book chapter

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Putative endosymbiont-mediated coexistence of weevil sibling species competing with each other

Adrien Merville, Samuel Venner, H. Henri, Agnès Vallier, F. Menu, F. Vavre...

7. International Symbiosis Society (ISS) Congress "The earth’s vast symbiosphere" .

Poster

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Sexual and asexual oogenesis require the expression of unique and shared sets of genes in the insect Acyrthosiphon pisum

Aurore Gallot-Le Grand, Shuji Shigenobu, Tomomi Hashiyama, Stéphanie Jaubert, Denis Tagu

BMC Genomics . 13 : 76

DOI: 10.1186/1471-2164-13-76

Journal article

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Facing multiple information sources while foraging on successive patches: how does a parasitoid deal with experience?

L. Froissart, C. Bernstein, L. Humblot, I. Amat, Emmanuel Desouhant

Animal Behaviour . 83 : 189--199

DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2011.10.025

Journal article

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Contrasted breeding strategies in four sympatric sibling insect species: when a proovigenic and capital breeder copes with a stochastic environment

Pierre-François Pelisson, Marie-Claude Bel-Venner, Benjamin Rey, Lorraine Burgevin, François Martineau, François Fourel...

Functional Ecology . 26 ( 1 ) : 198-206

DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2435.2011.01925.x

Journal article

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The Quest for Immortality in Triatomines: A Meta-Analysis of the Senescence Process in Hemimetabolous Hematophagous Insects

P. Medone, J. Rabinovich, E. Nieves, S. Ceccarelli, D. Canale, R.L. Stariolo...

incollection . -- : 225-250

Journal article

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