Research labs
Evolutionary and Functional Genomics lab
The key question in genomics is how genomes vary and evolve at both large and fine scales. The Evolutionary and Functional Genomics lab is particularly interested in understanding the molecular processes underlying adaptive evolution and the functional consequences of adaptive mutations. Towards this end, -omics strategies with detailed molecular and functional analyses of the candidate adaptive mutations are combined in order to arrive at a comprehensive picture of adaptation. This lab studies both transposable element (TE)-induced adaptations and point mutations in the model organism Drosophila melanogaster. It is also interested in the population dynamics of TEs. TEs are the most active, diverse, and ancient components in a broad range of genomes. As such, a complete understanding of genome function and evolution cannot be achieved without a thorough understanding of TE impact and TE biology.
Principal investigator: Josefa González
Members of the lab: Lain Guio, Postdoctoral Researcher; Maite Barrón, Postdoctoral Researcher; Gabriel Rech, Postdoctoral Researcher; Jose Luis Villanueva-Cañas, Postdoctoral Researcher; Anna Ullastres, PhD Student; Miriam Merenciano, PhD Student; Vivien Horváth, PhD Student; Laura Aguilera, PhD Student; Camillo Iacometti, Master Student, and Ingrid Palomino, Master Student
Oral presentations and talks given: 8
Main publications and other research activities:
Horvath, V., Merenciano, M and González J. Revisiting the relationship between transposable elements and the eukaryotic stress response. Trends in Genetics 33: 832-841. 2017.
Villanueva-Cañas, J.L., Rech, G.E., de Cara, MAR, González, J. Beyond SNPs: how to detect selection on transposable element insertions. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 8: 728-737. 2017.
Le, H., Guio, L., Merenciano, M., Rovira, Q., Barrón, M.G., González, J. Natural and laboratory mutations in kuzbanian are associated with zinc stress phenotypes in Drosophila melanogaster. Scientific Reports, 7: 42663. 2017.
Organizer of the 6th European Drosophila Population Genomics Consortium (DrosEU) workshop. 20th August 2017, Groningen. Netherlands.
Main outreach activities:
Ciència i convivència. Funded by the Barcelona City Council
Melanogaster Catch the Fly. Funded by the European Commission
Funding (active projects in 2017 only):
Name of the project | New approaches to long-standing questions: adaptation in Drosophila |
Principal investigator | Josefa González |
Funding institution | European Commission |
Name of the project | Origin, diversification and diversity of metazoans, fungi and their unicellular relatives; an ecological and evolutionary approach |
Principal investigator | Josefa González and Iñaki Ruiz Trillo |
Funding institution | Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity/FEDER |
Name of the project | AdaptNET. Genomics of adaptation network |
Principal investigator | Julio Rozas. Co-PI: Josefa González |
Funding institution | Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity |
Name of the project | Origin and evolution of sylvatic populations of Anopheles gambiae |
Principal investigator | Josefa González and Diego Ayala |
Funding institution | CNRS-CSIC |
Name of the project | European Drosophila population genomics network |
Principal investigator | Co-PI: Josefa González |
Funding institution | ESEB |
More information: Evolutionary and Functional Genomics lab’s website | Evolutionary and Functional Genomic lab’s Twitter account