Anaïs Gibert

French National Centre for Scientific Research | CNRS · Institut écologie et environnement (INEE)

Species with disjunct geographic distributions provide natural opportunities to investigate recent or incipient allopatric divergence. Although not rare, many of the cases observed result from successful colonization from a historical to a new range through dispersal or human-induced introduction which make the underlying eco-evolutionary processes...

Background: In contrast with historical knowledge, a recent view posits that a non-negligible proportion of populations thrive in a fragmented landscape. One underlying mechanism is the maintenance of functional connectivity, i.e., the net flow of individuals or their genes moving among suitable habitat patches. Alternatively, functional connectivi...

Characterising phenotypic differentiation is crucial to understand which traits are involved in population divergence and establish the evolutionary scenario underlying the speciation process. Species harbouring a disjunct spatial distribution or cryptic taxa suggest that scientists often fail to detect subtle phenotypic differentiation at first si...

On pense souvent que la systématique consiste principalement à ranger des espèces dans des cases plus ou moins grandes. Pourtant, cette discipline a beaucoup évolué et l’utilisation des outils de génétique moléculaire permet de déterminer de plus en plus précisément les relations de parenté entre les différents taxons. Au-delà du positionnement d’u...

Experimental studies on local adaptation rarely investigate how different environmental variables might modify signals of adaptation or maladaptation. In plant common garden experiments, signals of adaptation or maladaptation to elevation are usually investigated in open habitats under full light. However, most plants inhabit heterogeneous habitats...

Background: In contrast with historical knowledge, a recent view posits that a non-negligible proportion of populations might respond positively to habitat fragmentation. Populations might thrive in a fragmented landscape if functional connectivity, i.e., the net flow of individuals or their genes moving among suitable habitat patches, is not restr...

Signatures of local adaptation have been found at all life stages in plants. Yet, the contribution of later plant stages is rarely disentangled from the influence of early-life stages. Here, we investigate the direct contribution of adult plant stages to climate adaptation in two subspecies of snapdragon plants (Antirrhinum majus), while growth con...

Some lineages of the orchid genus Ophrys exhibit among the highest diversification rates reported so far. As a consequence of a such intense and rapid evolution, the systematics and taxonomy of this genus remain unclear. A hybrid assembly approach based-on long- and short-read genomic data allowed us to outperform classical methods to successfully...

Whole plastid genome-based phylogenomics supports an inner placement of the O. insectifera group rather than a basal position in the rapidly diversifying Ophrys genus (Orchidaceae) Some lineages of the Orchid genus Ophrys exhibit among the highest diversification rates reported so far. As a consequence of a such intense and rapid evolution, the sys...

The federal Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment (DAWE) and as- sociated state biosecurity agencies play a fundamental role in surveying for the early detection of high impact invasive plant pests. This surveillance is inherently labour intensive and costly to maintain. As such, efficient allocation of increasingly finite surveillan...

Phenotypic divergence among natural populations can be explained by natural selection or by neutral processes such as drift. Many examples in the literature compare putatively neutral (FST) and quantitative genetic (QST) differentiation in multiple populations to assess their evolutionary signature and identify candidate traits involved with local...

Ophrys aveyronensis is an orchid with disjunct geographic distribution. For biogeographic and conservation purpose, we sequenced its complete plastome using Illumina data. The complete plastome is 146,816 bp in length, consisting of a pair of inverted repeats (IRs) of 25,006 bp, a large single-copy (LSC) region and a small single-copy region (SSC)...

Almost all plant species interact with one or more symbioses somewhere within their distribution range. Bringing together plant trait data and growth responses to symbioses spanning 552 plant species, we provide for the first time on a large scale (597 studies) a quantitative synthesis on plant performance differences between eight major types of s...

We provide a list of soft skills that are important for collaboration and teamwork, based on our own experience and from an opinion survey of team leaders. Each skill can be learned to some extent. We also outline workable short courses for graduate schools to strengthen teamwork and collaboration skills among research students.

A plant's growth rate is seen as a central element of its ecological strategy, and as determined by its traits. Yet the literature is inconsistent about the empirical correlation between functional traits and growth, casting doubt on the capacity of some prominent traits to influence growth rate. We propose that traits should influence growth in a...

The Epichloë fungal endophytes that inhabit grasses have potentially large-scale consequences for macro- and micro-organisms and food chains in agriculture. Over 40 years of study on the benefits of symbiotic Epichloë fungal endophytes for host grasses, investigations have focused on the major agricultural species, tall fescue and perennial ryegras...

Two main mechanisms are thought to affect the prevalence of endophyte-grass symbiosis in host populations: the mode of endophyte transmission, and the fitness differential between symbiotic and non-symbiotic plants. These mechanisms have mostly been studied in synthetic grass populations. If we are to improve our understanding of the ecological and...

Understanding the variation in hereditary symbiont frequency among host populations is a prerequisite to predict symbiont fixation processes. However, the mechanisms driving this variation remain elusive. Exploring the mechanisms responsible for the observed variability on an ecological time scale requires simultaneous study of fitness differential...

An understanding of hereditary endophytic fungi, and the effects on grass persistence strategies (i.e. relative investment in sexual reproduction and vegetative growth) under natural conditions may help to predict how some alpine ecosystems will respond to environmental change. Grass persistence and endophyte maintenance in host populations are clo...

Hereditary symbioses between fungal endophytes and grasses are relatively recent in the history of plant life. Given < 80 million yr of co-evolution, symbioses are likely to have impacted plant microevolutionary rather than macroevolutionary processes. Therefore, we investigated the microevolutionary role of the fungal endophyte Neotyphodium lolii...

Aims Symbiotic relationships between fungal endophytes and grass species are known to increase stress resistance in the grass host; however, there is little evidence to suggest that the positive effects occur early in the grass life cycle. In this study, we explored the effects of the endophyte Epichloë festucae on the growth and survival of Festuc...

Choosing the provenance of seed used in ecological restoration could entail its success. An alternative approach to examine local adaptation in seed sourcing is the assessment of genetic structure and diversity based on molecular markers. These types of analyses focus on the genetics of the target plant itself and eliminate the genetic influence of...

Choosing the provenance of seed used in eco-logical restoration could entail its success. An alternative approach to examine local adaptation in seed sourcing is the assessment of genetic structure and diversity based on molecular markers. These types of analyses focus on the genetics of the target plant itself and eliminate the genetic influence o...

Demystification of knowledge: the stakes of beginning popular science from University