Biology subjects

Despres, L.

Publications and source records attributed to Despres, L..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Genomic predictions of climate change vulnerability in the emblematic mountain butterfly Parnassius apollo

The unprecedented rate of climate warming threatens many species, and assessing their vulnerability to climate change represents a critical challenge in conservation biology. The Apollo butterfly, an emblematic mountain species, is expected to be impacted by climate change. Here, we analysed thousands of SNPs from 101 localities across Apollo French distribution. We identified 93 SNPs strongly associated with climate variation using five genotype-environment association analyses. We forecasted future climate maladaptation of French Apollo populations using four genomic offset methods and integrated these results with neutral and adaptive genetic diversity, genetic structure and adaptive climatic niches to infer their vulnerability to climate change. Jura and Alps populations exhibited the lowest risk of vulnerability to climate change, with low genomic offsets, high genetic diversity and connectivity, whereas Auvergne populations showed the highest genomic offsets and lowest neutral and adaptive genetic diversity. Only a reduced percentage (<1%) of the current distribution is predicted to face climatic conditions outside the current range, suggesting that adaptive variability required to adapt to future climates may already be present, and that assisted gene flow could represent an effective conservation strategy. Finally, we discuss some of the main challenges of genomic forecasts, particularly for declining non-model species.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2024

Untangling the contribution of adaptive versus non-adaptive processes in the evolution of reproductive isolation between Coenonympha butterflies.

Speciation is a key evolutionary process which has been studied in numerous organisms and at multiple scales, from lineage radiation to gene expression. However, the factors explaining the rise of new species are not yet fully understood, and the relative contribution of neutral versus selective evolutionary processes in triggering and maintaining reproductive isolation between lineages is still debated. To explore this question, we study the divergence of two butterfly species, Coenonympha arcania and C. gardetta (Nymphalidae), which diverged relatively recently but show strong ecological differences. Whole genome sequence data reveal high overall differentiation between the two lineages, best explained by a long period of isolation at the early stage of their divergence. Demographically explicit approaches identify that 6.6% of the genome (32.7 Mbp) is impermeable to gene flow between the two species. Lots of these barrier loci are located on the Z chromosome, potentially spanning 75% of its length which would indicate that a large Z effect is at play in this speciation. Moreover, only a small proportion of barriers showed signatures of selection, suggesting that non-adaptive processes largely contributed to the build-up of reproductive isolation. Therefore, although genes involved in stress response and response to hypoxia are interesting candidates under selection, the adaptation of C. gardetta to alpine conditions may not to be the main driver of speciation. Our study brings an original example of intertwined adaptive and non-adaptive processes leading to reproductive isolation in a speciation with secondary contact and improves our understanding of the genomic underpinnings of species divergence.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2021

De novo determination of mosquitocidal Cry11Aa and Cry11Ba structures from naturally-occurring nanocrystals

Cry11Aa and Cry11Ba are the two most potent toxins produced by mosquitocidal Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis and jegathesan, respectively. The toxins naturally crystallize within the host; however, the crystals are too small for structure determination at synchrotron sources. Therefore, we applied serial femtosecond crystallography at X-ray free electron lasers to in vivo-grown nanocrystals of these toxins. The structure of Cry11Aa was determined de novo using the single-wavelength anomalous dispersion method, which in turn enabled the determination of the Cry11Ba structure by molecular replacement. The two structures reveal a new pattern for in vivo crystallization of Cry toxins, whereby each of their three domains packs with a symmetrically identical domain, and a cleavable crystal packing motif is located within the protoxin rather than at the termini. The diversity of in vivo crystallization patterns suggests explanations for their varied levels of toxicity and rational approaches to improve these toxins for mosquito control.

molecular biology↗