Milesi lab
Population genomics and adaptation
Evolutionary biology aims at identifying the forces that drive species evolution and understanding how these forces in interaction with the environment shape the biodiversity. Among them, I have a peculiar interest for the process of natural selection. It is indeed natural selection that explains the adequacy between phenotypes and their environment. In our research group we are studying the genetic architecture underlying the phenotypic traits involved in adaptation to environmental variation.
A main outcome of a decade of extensive sequencing effort is that genomic structural variation (short insertions / deletions, gene duplications / deletions, copy number variations, inversions, polyploidization) accounts for more genetic diversity than point mutations. However the role in adaptation of such polymorphisms at short and intermediate evolutionary time scale has been overlooked. To investigate such questions we combine -omics approaches with experimentations (common garden, experimental evolution), working with specimen from the lab and from natural populations. We also develop new analytical frameworks (https://github.com/milesilab/).
Using the case of mosquitoes as model species we are studying the relationships between structure - function of mega-segmental duplications conferring resistance to insecticide. Using forest trees species we are studying the role of copy number variation in adaptation along environmental gradients. Finally, we use Brassicaceae species to conduct -omics studies and experimental evolution aiming at quantifying key parameters (mutation rate, distribution of fitness effects, segregation pattern) of structural variants to further develop population genetics models.
Group members
Publications
Part of Global Change Biology, 2024
- DOI for Hybridization mediated range expansion and climate change resilience in two keystone tree species of boreal forests
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Part of Heredity, p. 179-191, 2024
- DOI for Despite structural identity, ace-1 heterogenous duplication resistance alleles are quite diverse in Anopheles mosquitoes
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Diversity and enrichment of breeding material for resilience in European forests
Part of Forest Ecology and Management, 2023
- DOI for Diversity and enrichment of breeding material for resilience in European forests
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Phylogenetic Analysis of Allotetraploid Species Using Polarized Genomic Sequences
Part of Systematic Biology, p. 372-390, 2023
- DOI for Phylogenetic Analysis of Allotetraploid Species Using Polarized Genomic Sequences
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Part of Evolutionary Applications, p. 163-172, 2023
- DOI for Divergent selection predating the Last Glacial Maximum mainly acted on macro‐phenotypes in Norway spruce
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Between but Not Within-Species Variation in the Distribution of Fitness Effects
Part of Molecular biology and evolution, 2023
- DOI for Between but Not Within-Species Variation in the Distribution of Fitness Effects
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Part of Molecular Ecology Resources, p. 1772-1789, 2023
- DOI for A comprehensive framework for detecting copy number variants from single nucleotide polymorphism data: ‘rCNV’, a versatile r package for paralogue and CNV detection
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Part of AoB Plants, 2022
- DOI for The relative role of plasticity and demographic history in Capsella bursa-pastoris: a common garden experiment in Asia and Europe
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Part of New Phytologist, p. 2344-2357, 2022
- DOI for How broad is the selfing syndrome? Insights from convergent evolution of gene expression across species and tissues in the Capsella genus
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Teasing apart the joint effect of demography and natural selection in the birth of a contact zone
Part of New Phytologist, p. 1976-1987, 2022
- DOI for Teasing apart the joint effect of demography and natural selection in the birth of a contact zone
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