Dr. Gwénaëlle Bontonou

I obtained my PhD in 2014 from the University of Paris-Sud. My graduate research, under the supervision of Claude Wicker-Thomas, focuses on the evolution of Drosophila pheromones. I worked with D. melanogaster and D. simulans populations with divergent male pheromonal profiles related to their geographical origin. I studied the impact of temperature on the synthesis of these pheromones as well as their role in the establishment of sexual isolation. I was also interested in the genetic changes that caused the variation and the evolution of these pheromonal profiles.

Following my PhD I did my first postdoc in Martine Simonelig’s lab where I worked on the molecular mechanisms of gene regulation by the piRNAs pathway in the Drosophila embryo.