Dr. Jonathan Romiguier

I am particularly fascinated by the genomic consequences of dramatic phenotypic evolution. During my PhD thesis, I linked life-history strategies of mammals to genomic evolution metrics, such as GC% or dN/dS. These relationships helped to better understand molecular evolution processes (birth of genomic landscapes, biased genetic conversion and efficiency of natural selection), but also to shed new light on the evolution of mammals (ancestral longevity estimations of our ancestors, rooting of the placental mammal phylogeny).
Following this attempt to link genome evolution and species biology, I worked during my first post-doc on the determinants of genetic diversity disparities among animals. Analysing hundreds of transcriptomes in 71 non-model metazoan species, I showed that intraspecific polymorphism of a given species can be predicted by its biology.

In my current post-doctoral projects in Lausanne, I try to uncover genomic causes and consequences linked to the remarkable longevity of ants. For this, I plan to produce and analyze the full transcriptome of both queens (long-lived caste) and workers (short-lived caste) in ca. 40 ant species of contrasting average lifespans (e.g. 30 years for Lasius niger vs less than one year for Monomorium pharaonis).This will provide valuable resources to understand how natural selection can lead to high longevity, to evaluate the role of gene expression on lifespan variations and to identify new candidate genes involved in aging.