Evolution and Development Quantitative Genetics Behaviour
My main scientific interests lie on the mechanisms of how phenotypes are generated and evolve. During my PhD (2010-2015) and first postdoctoral (2015-2017) research in the group of Claudio R. Alonso at the University of Sussex, UK, I tackled questions on the role of RNA regulation for neuronal development and behaviour in Drosophila melanogaster. Using an interdisciplinary approach combining molecular biology, developmental genetics and neurobehaviour, I discovered: (i) molecular mechanisms on Hox RNA processing and its impact on neural specification, (ii) fundamental and pervasive roles of small non-coding RNAs (microRNAs) in the control of locomotor behaviour.
I did my second postdoctoral (2017-2023) work as a Marie Curie fellow in the laboratory of Marie-Anne Félix at the Institute of Biology of the École Normale Supérieure/CNRS, Paris, France. Here, I turned my research to the mechanisms of morphological evolution. For this, I used a new model organism, the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans and related species, focusing on the vulva as a cellular and developmental system. Using an original approach integrating quantitative genetics, developmental genetics, genomics and genome editing, I established a novel molecular genetics logic to explain fast phenotypic evolutionary rates based on a broader mutational target size rather than high mutational rates. Second, I led a long and ambitious project on the role of developmental genetic constraints in shaping evolutionary rates of morphological variation at single-cell level, at micro- and macro-evolutionary scales. Our results show the fundamental finding that evolution of developmental genetic constraints explain – and can predict – millions of years of evolutionary rates across nematode taxa.
I am currently a Marie Curie researcher in the Evolutionary Ecology group kindly hosted by Sara Magalhães to uncover the roles and mechanisms of developmental biases in behavioural evolution of nematodes. Additionally, I am an Invited Assistant Professor in Neurobiology and Animal Developmental Biology at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon.
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