Elodie Chapuis

Research Interests | Curriculum vitae

Research Interests

Many plants and some animals are hermaphrodites and can therefore self-fertilzed. Selfing presents avantages like reproductive assurance and not the cost of outcrossing. Despite those, selfing is not the major mating system choosen by organisms. The reason often argued for this state is the presence of inbreeding depression. Inbreeding depression is, in general, viewed as the loss of fitness of inbred individuals compared to outbred individuals. The freshwater snail Galba (Lymnaea) truncatula represents a good model for studying the evolution of mating system. Indeed, this specie is a preferential selfer but selfing rates can vary between populations. In this regard, the purpose of this study is to determine the evolutionary consequences of selfing in Galba truncatula:

  1. do high-selfing populations have reduce variability (neutral and adaptative characters)?
  2. do high-selfing populations have a larger genetic load?
  3. does inbreeding depression occurs in this specie? Which magnitude? Small amout of inbreeding depression could explain the existence/persistence of high selfing rates.

Curriculum vitae

Born 20 septembre 1978, Bordeaux, France

PhD with Sandine Trouvé & Jérôme Goudet. Evolutionnary consequences of selfing in the freshwatersnail Galba truncatula. Université de Lausanne, Switzerland.

Master with KarenMcCoy et Claire Tirard. Specialization in a host-parasite system: the case of the tick Ixodes uriae and its seabird hosts, the penguins. Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France.

with Sandra Lavorel. Biodiversity and invasion: effect of spatial diversity on invasibility in plant communities. CEFE-CNRS, Montpellier, France.

4 years studies at the Université de Montpellier, France.

1983-1985 and 1991-1993
4 years schooling in North Carolina and New York State, USA


Biophore - CH-1015 Lausanne
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