Evolution and genetics
Virginie COURTIER-ORGOGOZO

Our research focuses on the mutations responsible for evolutionary change.
We use a combination of different approaches to identify the mutations responsible for evolutionary change and to reconstruct past evolutionary events. We hope that our work will provide new and rigorous data to better understand our evolution, past and future.
Keywords: evolution, species, Drosophila, genome, genetics, ecology, bioadhesive, development, QTL mapping
+33 (0)157278043 virginie.courtier(at)ijm.fr @Biol4Ever https://courtier.ijm.fr/
Our research investigates the mutations responsible for evolutionary changes.
Since Darwin, research in evolutionary biology tries to understand biodiversity – the great number of species in nature, each with features so well adapted to its environment. In our current understanding of evolution, the genes and the mutations responsible for phenotypic differences have no distinctive features: mutations occur randomly and a few of them happen to spread in populations through selection and chance. However, phenotypic evolution may not be totally random in terms of genetics. There might be rules to be discovered about the mutations underlying natural evolution.
We are using a combination of various approaches to identify the mutations responsible for evolutionary changes and to reconstruct past evolutionary events. We hope that our work will provide new and rigorous data to better understand our evolution, past and future.
EVOLUTION OF FLY GLUE (PI: V. COURTIER-ORGOGOZO)
At the end of the larval stage, Drosophila larvae produce a proteinaceous glue that allows the animal to adhere to a substrate for several days during metamorphosis. We aim to use the powerful genetic tools of the model organism Drosophila melanogaster to explore the molecular basis for fly glue adhesion. We want to identify the genes involved in glue adhesion and understand how they have changed during evolution so that the glue can stick to various substrates in diverse environments. We developed a new assay to quantify Drosophila glue adhesiveness and we plan to measure adhesion of glue mutants and to compare adhesion between different Drosophila melanogaster populations and Drosophila species.
EVOLUTION OF LEFT-RIGHT SIZE ASYMMETRY (PI: MICHAEL LANG)
How left-right asymmetries in organ size develop remains a mystery. Drosophila pachea has evolved a unique left-right asymmetry in genitalia lobes. No left-right size asymmetry has been described in D. melanogaster. We are trying to uncover the mechanisms that triger asymmetric lobe development and the role of these asymmetric lobes during copulation. We use a stock of Drosophila pachea containing spontaneous symmetric mutant males and we perform micro-scale laser removal of lobe bristles and micro-scale surgery of lobes. We are also examining left-right asymmetries in behavior and morphology in species closely related to D. pachea, in order to understand how left-right asymmetry in lobe size evolved in D. pachea.
EVOLUTION OF GENITALIA (PI: V. COURTIER-ORGOGOZO)
We wish to understand how the morphology of genital organs change rapidly during evolution. We combine developmental studies, genomics, genetics, quantitative genetics, population genetics, microCT scans, laser microsurgery and behavioral experiments to understand how genes and cellular mechanisms modulate organ shape in a subtle and precise way, and how this can affect reproduction and long-term evolution. We examine the following genital organs: hypandrial bristles, ventral branches and posterior lobes.
THE ORIGIN OF COVID-19
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DATABASES
Gephebase contains a list of all the genes and mutations that have been found to be responsible for phenotypic differences (morphological, physiological and behavioral traits) between populations or strains for pluricellular organisms. A preliminary list was deposited in Dryad in 2013 and the full open access website is available here
FlyPhenomics provides a compilation of the phenotypes that have been reported to differ between at least two species of the D. melanogaster subgroup. More than 150 morphological, physiological and behavioral differences have been described between 1919 and 2006.
associated paper: Orgogozo V, Stern DL, How different are recently diverged species? More than 150 phenotypic differences have been reported for the D. melanogaster species subgroup. Fly 2009 Mar-Apr;3(2):117.
FlyPNS :
description of the embryonic and larval peripheral nervous system of D. melanogaster.
made with Wesley Grueber.
associated paper: Orgogozo V, Grueber WB, FlyPNS, a database of the Drosophila embryonic and larval peripheral nervous system. BMC Dev Biol. 2005 Feb 17; 5(1):4.
Group Leader:
Virginie COURTIER-ORGOGOZO
Directrice de Recherche 2e classe
Téléphone : +33 (0)157278043, +33 (0)157278087
virginie.courtier(at)ijm.fr
Members:
Manon MONIER, PhD student
manon.monier(at)ijm.fr
Arrived in March 2020 for her M2
Evolution of Drosophila glue.
Michael LANG, CNRS CR researcher
michael.lang(at)ijm.fr
Arrived in May 2010
Evolution of left-right asymmetry in D. pachea and closely related species.
Evolution of sterol metabolism in insects.
Alexis LALOUETTE, University lecturer
alexis.lalouette(at)ijm.fr
Arrived in 2011
Development and evolution of lobe shape in the D. melanogaster subgroup.
Isabelle NUEZ, Research Engineer CNRS
isabelle.nuez(at)ijm.fr
Arrived in 2011
Evolution of genitalia bristles in D. santomea. Evolution of Drosophila glue.
Jean-Noël LORENZI, Research Engineer CNRS
jeannoel.lorenzi(at)gmail.com
Arrived in Sept 2021
Elucidating the proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2.
Roshan Kumar VIJENDRAVARMA, CNRS CR researcher
Arrived in Jan 2022
Developmental instability and sexual selection, adaptation to chronic malnutrition during development.
van Helden, J., Butler, C. D., Achaz, G., Canard, B., Casane, D., Claverie, J. M., … & Halloy, J. (2021). An appeal for an objective, open, and transparent scientific debate about the origin of SARS-CoV-2. The Lancet. Featured in several newspapers including il Fatto Quotidiano Daily Mail ThePrint
Peluffo AE, Hamdani M, Vargas-Valderrama A, David JR, Mallard F, Graner F, Courtier-Orgogozo V. A morphological trait involved in reproductive isolation between Drosophila sister species is sensitive to temperature. Ecology and Evolution 11(12), 7492-7506. doi: 10.1002/ece3.7580 DRYAD Supp Data BioRxiv
Borne, F., Prigent, S.R., Molet, M., Courtier-Orgogozo, V. (2021) Drosophila glue protects from predation. Proc. R. Soc. B. 288: 20210088. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2021.0088 DRYAD Supp Data BioRxiv
Actualité CNRS
Lefèvre, B.M., Catté, D., Courtier-Orgogozo, V., Lang, M. (2021) Male genital lobe morphology affects the chance to copulate in Drosophila pachea. BMC Ecol Evo 21, 23. doi: 10.1186/s12862-021-01759-z PDF
Rode N, Courtier-Orgogozo V, Débarre F. (2020) Can a population targeted by a CRISPR-based homing gene drive be rescued? G3. 10 (9), 3403-3415. doi: 10.1534/g3.120.401484 BioRxiv
Courtier-Orgogozo V, Danchin A, Gouyon PH, Boëte C (2020) Evaluating the Probability of CRISPR-based Gene Drive Contaminating Another Species. Evolutionary Applications 00:1–18. doi: 10.1111/eva.12939 BioRxiv PDF
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Borne F, Kovalev A, Gorb S, Courtier-Orgogozo V (2020) The glue produced by Drosophila melanogaster for pupa adhesion is universal. Journal of Experimental Biology 223: jeb220608 doi: 10.1242/jeb.220608 Published 23 April 2020. DRYAD BioRxiv Featured in “inside JEB“. PDF
Passion Entomologie
Courtier-Orgogozo V, Martin A (2020) The Coding Loci of Evolution and Domestication: Current Knowledge and Implications for Bio-Inspired Genome Editing. Journal of Experimental Biology 223: jeb208934. Published 7 February 2020. doi: 10.1242/jeb.208934 PDF HAL
Prigent S, Lang M, Nagy O, Acurio A, Matamoro-Vidal A, Courtier-Orgogozo and David JR (2020) Field collections reveal that São Tomé is the Afrotropical island with the highest diversity of drosophilid flies (Diptera: Drosophilidae). Annales de la Société Entomologique de France. doi:10.1080/00379271.2019.1703814 PDF HAL
Courtier-Orgogozo V, Martin A, Arnoult L, Prigent S, Wiltgen S (2020) Gephebase, a Database of Genotype-Phenotype Relationships for natural and domesticated variation in Eukaryotes. Nucleic Acid Research 48(D1), D696-D703. doi:10.1093/nar/gkz796 PDF HAL BioRxiv
Gavin Rice, Jean R. David, Yoshitaka Kamimura, John P. Masly, Alistair P. Mcgregor, Olga Nagy, Stéphane Noselli, Maria Daniela Santos Nunes, Patrick O’Grady, Ernesto Sánchez-Herrero, Mark L. Siegal, Masanori J. Toda*, Mark Rebeiz*, Virginie Courtier-Orgogozo*, Amir Yassin* (*: corresponding authors) (2019). Revised nomenclature and atlas of the male terminalia of Drosophila melanogaster. Fly. doi:10.1080/19336934.2019.1653733 PDF HAL preprints
2021
Borne F, Kulathinal RJ, Courtier-Orgogozo V. (2021) Glue genes are subjected to diverse selective forces during Drosophila development. Genome Biology and Evolution. evab248. doi: 10.1093/gbe/evab248 PDF DRYAD BioRxiv.
EntomoNews
Suvorov, A., Kim, B. Y., Wang, J., Armstrong, E. E., Peede, D., D’Agostino, E. R., Price, D.K., Waddell, P., Lang, M., Courtier-Orgogozo, V., David, J.R., Petrov, P., Matute, D.R., Schrider, D.R., Comeault, A. A. (2021) Widespread introgression across a phylogeny of 155 Drosophila genomes. Current Biology 32, 1-13. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2021.10.052
BioRxiv
van Helden, J., Butler, C. D., Achaz, G., Canard, B., Casane, D., Claverie, J. M., … & Halloy, J. (2021). An appeal for an objective, open, and transparent scientific debate about the origin of SARS-CoV-2. The Lancet. Featured in several newspapers including il Fatto Quotidiano Daily Mail ThePrint
Peluffo AE, Hamdani M, Vargas-Valderrama A, David JR, Mallard F, Graner F, Courtier-Orgogozo V. A morphological trait involved in reproductive isolation between Drosophila sister species is sensitive to temperature. Ecology and Evolution 11(12), 7492-7506. doi: 10.1002/ece3.7580 DRYAD Supp Data BioRxiv
Borne, F., Prigent, S.R., Molet, M., Courtier-Orgogozo, V. (2021) Drosophila glue protects from predation. Proc. R. Soc. B. 288: 20210088. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2021.0088 DRYAD Supp Data BioRxiv
Actualité CNRS
Lefèvre, B.M., Catté, D., Courtier-Orgogozo, V., Lang, M. (2021) Male genital lobe morphology affects the chance to copulate in Drosophila pachea. BMC Ecol Evo 21, 23. doi: 10.1186/s12862-021-01759-z PDF
2020
Rode N, Courtier-Orgogozo V, Débarre F. (2020) Can a population targeted by a CRISPR-based homing gene drive be rescued? G3. 10 (9), 3403-3415. doi: 10.1534/g3.120.401484 BioRxiv
Courtier-Orgogozo V, Danchin A, Gouyon PH, Boëte C (2020) Evaluating the Probability of CRISPR-based Gene Drive Contaminating Another Species. Evolutionary Applications 00:1–18. doi: 10.1111/eva.12939 BioRxiv PDF
Borne F, Kovalev A, Gorb S, Courtier-Orgogozo V (2020) The glue produced by Drosophila melanogaster for pupa adhesion is universal. Journal of Experimental Biology 223: jeb220608 doi: 10.1242/jeb.220608 Published 23 April 2020. DRYAD BioRxiv Featured in “inside JEB“. PDF
Passion Entomologie
Courtier-Orgogozo V, Martin A (2020) The Coding Loci of Evolution and Domestication: Current Knowledge and Implications for Bio-Inspired Genome Editing. Journal of Experimental Biology 223: jeb208934. Published 7 February 2020. doi: 10.1242/jeb.208934 PDF HAL
Prigent S, Lang M, Nagy O, Acurio A, Matamoro-Vidal A, Courtier-Orgogozo and David JR (2020) Field collections reveal that São Tomé is the Afrotropical island with the highest diversity of drosophilid flies (Diptera: Drosophilidae). Annales de la Société Entomologique de France. doi:10.1080/00379271.2019.1703814 PDF HAL
Courtier-Orgogozo V, Martin A, Arnoult L, Prigent S, Wiltgen S (2020) Gephebase, a Database of Genotype-Phenotype Relationships for natural and domesticated variation in Eukaryotes. Nucleic Acid Research 48(D1), D696-D703. doi:10.1093/nar/gkz796 PDF HAL BioRxiv
2019
Gavin Rice, Jean R. David, Yoshitaka Kamimura, John P. Masly, Alistair P. Mcgregor, Olga Nagy, Stéphane Noselli, Maria Daniela Santos Nunes, Patrick O’Grady, Ernesto Sánchez-Herrero, Mark L. Siegal, Masanori J. Toda*, Mark Rebeiz*, Virginie Courtier-Orgogozo*, Amir Yassin* (*: corresponding authors) (2019). Revised nomenclature and atlas of the male terminalia of Drosophila melanogaster. Fly. doi:10.1080/19336934.2019.1653733 PDF HAL preprints
Matentzoglu, Nicolas, Balhoff, James P., Bello, Susan M., Bradford, Yvonne M., Carmody, Leigh C., Cooper, Laurel D., Courtier-Orgogozo V., … Osumi-Sutherland, David. (2019, July 26). Phenotype Ontologies Traversing All The Organisms (POTATO) workshop: 2nd edition. Zenodo
Acurio A, Rhebergen FT, Paulus S, Courtier-Orgogozo V, Lang M (2019) Repeated evolution of asymmetric genitalia and one-sided mating in the Drosophila nannoptera species group. BMC Evolutionary Biology 19:109. doi:10.1186/s12862-019-1434-z HAL PDF bioRxiv
Pondeville E, Puchot N, Lang M, Cherrier F, Schaffner F, Dauphin-Villemant C, Bischoff E, and Bourgouin C (2019) Evolution of sexually-transferred steroids and mating-induced phenotypes in Anopheles mosquitoes. Science Reports 2019, 9:4669.
Rode NO, Estoup A, Bourguet D, Courtier-Orgogozo V, Débarre F (2019) Population management using gene drive: molecular design, models of spread dynamics and assessment of ecological risks. Conservation Genetics, 20: 671–690. PDF Zenodo
Da Lage JL, Thomas GWC, Bonneau M, Courtier-Orgogozo V (2019) Evolution of salivary glue genes in Drosophila species. BMC Evolutionary Biology 19:36. PDF bioRxiv
2018
Nagy O, Nuez I, Savisaar R, Peluffo AE, Yassin A, Lang M, Stern DL, Matute DR, David JR, Courtier-Orgogozo V. Correlated Evolution of two Copulatory Organs via a Single Cis-Regulatory Nucleotide Change. Current Biology 28(21):3450-3457.e13. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.08.047. Epub 2018 Oct 18. Supp Info FigShare PDF
HAL bioRxiv Youtube video – CNRS news – La Recherche – Dispatch in Current Biology – F1000 Recommendation – OpenAccess
Matamoro-Vidal A, Tully T, Courtier-Orgogozo V, Robustness of bristle number to temperature and genetic background varies with bristle type and is regulated by miR-9a. bioRxiv
Courtier-Orgogozo V, Martin A, Predicting the genetic loci of past evolution. To be published in The culture of predictability and the nature of the unpredictable. Life, evolution, behaviour. Eds. Ceccarelli D, Frezza G. PDF Full Book bioRxiv
2017
Courtier-Orgogozo V, Morizot B, Boëte C, Using CRISPR‐based gene drive for agriculture pest control. EMBO reports 18, 1481. Reply to Comments. PDF
Courtier-Orgogozo V, Morizot B, Boëte C, Agriculture Pest Control with CRISPR-based gene drive: Time for public debate. EMBO reports PDF
.Martin A, Courtier-Orgogozo V, Morphological evolution repeatedly caused by mutations in signaling ligand genes. Diversity and Evolution of Butterfly Wing Patterns : An Integrative Approach. Eds. Sekimura T, Nijout F. Springer. Book chapter Table S1 Table S2 PDF
2016
Rhebergen F, Courtier-Orgogozo V, Dumont J, Schilthuizen M, Lang M. (2016) Drosophila pachea asymmetric lobes are part of a grasping device and stabilize one-sided mating. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 16(1),176. HAL PDF
Orgogozo V, Peluffo A, Morizot B. (2016) The “Mendelian gene” and the “molecular gene”: two relevant concepts of genetic units. Current Topics in Developmental Biology 119:1-26. CTDB HAL PDF
Lang M, Nagy O, Lang C, Orgogozo V. (2016) High throughput preparation of fly genomic DNA in 96-well format using a paint-shaker. Fly 9(3):138-44. PubMed PDF
Pradeu T, Laplane L, Prévot K, Hoquet T, Reynaud V, Fusco G, Minelli A, Orgogozo V, and Vervoort M. (2016) Defining “development”. Current Topics in Developmental Biology 117:171-83. Link PDF
2015
Orgogozo, V. (2015). Replaying the tape of life in the twenty-first century. Interface Focus, 5(6), 20150057. Link PDF
Orgogozo, V, Morizot, B, & Martin, A (2015). The differential view of genotype–phenotype relationships. Frontiers in Genetics, 6, 179. PDF
Peluffo, A. E., Nuez, I., Debat, V., Savisaar, R., Stern, D. L., & Orgogozo, V. (2015). A Major Locus Controls a Genital Shape Difference Involved in Reproductive Isolation Between Drosophila yakuba and Drosophila santomea. G3: Genes| Genomes| Genetics, g3-115. PDF
Alexandre Peluffo, Flora Borne
ongoing : Manon Monier
International
- Andolfatto, Columbia University, USA
- Martin, Georges Washington University, USA
- Matute, Chicago University, USA
- Santos, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
- Schilthuizen, Leiden, Netherlands
- D.L. Stern, Janelia farm, Ashburn, USA
National
- Danchin, Paris
- Graner, Université Paris 7, Paris
- Montagné and T. Chertemps, Université Paris 6, Paris
- Morizot, Marseille
- Rode, Montpellier
- Wiltgen, Montpellier
CNRS MITI 2020-2021 Adaptation du vivant