Nicolas Svetec

I am an evolutionary biologist with a particular interest in the genetics of adaptation. One of the key question in evolutionary biology is the understanding of the forces maintaining phenotypic and genetic variation within species. As local adaptation is one of these forces, my research activities focus on the investigation of traits under spatially varying selection. Rapid allele frequency changes under positive selection may leave footprints at the DNA level (like selective sweeps). Genomic scans for these footprints thus allow one to identify genetic variants involved in local adaptation. I then investigate the biological function of those variants by integrating physiological, behavioral, genetic and gene expression approaches. I use Drosophila melanogaster and some of its sister species as model organisms because their genetics and historical biogeography is well characterized and because they offer a very unique panel of molecular tools to study the genetics of adaptation. I started to work with Drosophila species during my masters’ degree. Under the supervision of Jean-Francois Ferveur (UB, Dijon, France), I manipulated the production and the perception of some cuticular hydrocarbons and studied the consequences on mating behavior and male-male interactions. Then, I joined the group of Wolfgang Stephan in LMU Munich (Germany) where I built a PhD project mixing QTL mapping and selective sweep mapping. It aimed at getting a better understanding of how D. melanogaster could adapt to the cold European climate. After my PhD, I moved to University of Toronto (Canada) for a postdoc under the supervision of Locke Rowe and Marla Sokolowski where I studied the effects of different alleles of the foraging gene on the behavior and the life history of D. melanogaster. I joined the Begun lab at UC Davis in California in 2011 to study spatially varying selection (i.e. latitudinal clines) in Drosophila species. My current research work integrates recombineering, genetic engineering, transgenics, transcriptomics, and genomics to study latitudinal clines in Drosophila - in particular for phenotypes linked to DNA repair and circadian rhythms (sleep).