Research labs

Comparative and Evolutionary Genomics lab

Life as we see it on our planet today has been shaped by many different biological processes, particularly natural selection, over billions of years. These processes leave a signature in our genomes in the form of differences between species, or between individuals of the same species. By interrogating these patterns of genome diversity we can infer what forces affect living organisms, how and when they act and how they affect such things as biodiversity, human emotions or the differential susceptibility of different people to certain diseases. The Comparative and Evolutionary Genomics lab analyses a wide range of genomic variants to determine processes, variants and molecular features that are also intrinsic to our species. To do so, it studies full genome, epigenome and transcriptome sequences of humans and great apes for a better understanding of specifically human features.

Principal investigator: Tomàs Marquès-Bonet and Arcadi Navarro

Members of the lab: Martin Kuhlwilm, Postdoctoral Researcher; Esther Lizano, Postdoctoral Researcher; David Juan Sopeña, Postdoctoral Researcher; Gerard Muntane, Postdoctoral Researcher; Jessica Hernandez, PhD Student; Raquel Garcia, PhD Student; Marc de Manuel, PhD Student; Lukas Kuderna, PhD Student; Irene Lobon, PhD Student; Claudia Fontsere, PhD Student; Sojung Han, PhD Student; Manuel Solis, PhD Student; Luis Ferrandez, PhD Student; Paula Esteller, PhD Student; Txema Heredia, PhD Student; Marina Braso, PhD Student; Xavier Farre, PhD Student; Aitor Serres, PhD Student; Marco Telford, PhD Student, and Marina Alvarez, Lab manager

Oral presentations and talks given: 15

Main publications and other research activities:

Nater, A.; Mattle-Greminger, M.P.; Nurcahyo, A.; Nowak, M.G.; de Manuel, M.; Desai, T.; Groves, C.; Pybus, M.; Bilgin Sonay, T.; Roos, C.; Lameira, A.R.; Wich, S.A.; Askew, J.; Davila-Ross, M.; Fredriksson, G.; de Valles, G.; Casals, F.; Prado-Martinez, J.;Goossens, B.; Verschoor, E.J.; Warren, K.S.; Singleton, I.; Marques, D.A.; Pamungkas, J.; Perwitasari-Farajallah, D.; Rianti, P.; Tuuga, A.; Gut, I.G.; Gut, M.; Orozco-terWengel, P.; Van Schaik, C.P.; Bertranpetit, J.; Anisimova, M.; Scally, A.; Marques-Bonet, T.; Meijaard, E.; Krützen, M. Morphometric, Behavioral, and Genomic Evidence for a New Orangutan Species Current Biology, 2017

Solis-Moruno, M.; de Manuel, M.; Hernandez-Rodriguez, J.; Fontsere, C.; Gomara-Castaño, A.; Valsera-Naranjo, C.; Crailsheim, D.; Navarro, A.; Llorente, M.; Riera, L; Feliu-Olleta, O.; Marques-Bonet, T. Potential damaging mutation in LRP5 from genome sequencing of the first reported chimpanzee with the Chiari malformation. Scientific Reports, 2017

Hernandez-Rodriguez, J.; Arandjelovic, M.; Lester, J.; de Filippo, C.; Weihmann, A.; Meyer, M.; Angedakin, S.; Casals, F.; Navarro, A.; Vigilant, L.; Kühl, H.S.; Langergraber, K.; Boesch, C.; Hughes, D. and Marques-Bonet, T. The impact of endogenous content, replicates and pooling on genome capture from fecal samples Molecular Ecology Resources, 2017

Kuderna L.F.K.; Tomlinson C.; Hillier L.W.; Tran A.; Fiddes I.T.; Armstrong J.; Laayouni H.; Gordon D.; Huddleston J.; Perez R.G.; Povolotskaya I.; Armero A.S.; Garrido J.G.; Ho D.; Ribeca P.; Alioto T.; Green R.E.; Paten B.; Navarro A.; Betranpetit J.; Herrero J.; Eichler E.E.; Sharp A.J.; Feuk L.; Warren W.C.; Marques-Bonet T. A 3-way hybrid approach to generate a new high-quality chimpanzee reference genome (Pan tro 3.0). GigaScience, 2017

McConnell, M.J.; Moran, J.V.; Abyzov, A.; Akbarian, S.; Bae, T.; Cortes-Ciriano, I.; Erwin, J.A.; Fasching, L.; Flasch, D.A.; Freed, D.; Ganz, J.; Jaffe, A.E.; Kwan, K.Y.; Kwon, M.; Lodato, M.A.; Mills, R.E.; Paquola, A.C.M.; Rodin, R.E.; Rosenbluh, C; Sestan, N.; Sherman, M.A.; Shin, J.H.; Song, S.; Straub, R.E.; Thorpe, J.; Weinberger, D.R.; Urban, A.E.; Zhou, B.; Gage, F.H.; Lehner, T; Senthil, G.; Walsh, C.A.; Chess, A.; Courchesne, E.; Gleeson, J.G.; Kidd, J.M.; Park, P.J.; Pevsner, J.; Vaccarino, F.M.; Brain Somatic Mosaicism Network (including Tomas Marques-Bonet). Intersection of diverse neuronal genomes and neuropsychiatric disease: The Brain Somatic Mosaicism Network. Science. 2017

Librado, P.; Gamba, C.; Gaunitz, C.; Der Sarkissian, C.; Pruvost, M.; Albrechtsen, A.; Fages, A.; Khan, N.; Schubert, M.; Jagannathan, V.; Serres, A.; Kuderna, L.; Povolotskaya, I.; Seguin-Orlando, A.; Lepetz, S.; Neuditschko, M.; Thèves, C.; Scheu, M.; Alquaraishi, S.; Alfarhan, A.H.; Al-Rasheid, K.; Rieder, S.; Samashev, Z.; Francfort, P-H.; Burger, J.; Benecke, N.; Hofreiter, M.; Ludwig, A.; Keyser, C.; Marques-Bonet, T.; Ludes, B.; Crubézy, E.; Leeb, T.; Willerslev, E.; Orlando, L. First domestic horse genomes Ancient DNA reveal major changes reshaping the horse genome in early and late domestication stages Science 2017

Rodríguez, J.A.; Marigorta, U.M.; Hughes, D.A.; Spataro, N.; Bosch, E.; Navarro, A. Antagonistic pleiotropy and mutation accumulation influence human senescence and disease, Nature ecology & evolution, 2017

Spataro, N.; Rodríguez, J.A.; Navarro, A.; Bosch, E. Properties of human disease genes and the role of genes linked to Mendelian disorders in complex disease aetiology Human molecular genetics, 2017

Muntané G.; Santpere G.; Verendeev A.; Seeley W.W.; Jacobs B.; Hopkins W.D.; Navarro A.; Sherwood C.C. Erratum to: Interhemispheric gene expression differences in the cerebral cortex of humans and macaque monkeys Brain Structure and Function, 2017

Funding (active projects in 2017 only):

More information: Tomàs Marquès-Bonet’s Twitter account | Arcadi Navarro’s Twitter account