Name:
Branca, Antoine
Status:
Postdoc
Email:
Tel.:
+49-(0)251-83-
Room:
Research interests:
- Host-parasite coevolution
- Population genomics
- Comparative genomics
- Next-Generation Sequencing
Curriculum vitae:
Publications:
- Masri L., Branca, A., , Sheppard AE, Papkou A, Laehnemann D, Günther PS, Prahl S, Saebelfeld M, Crain PR, Strauß J, Hollensteiner J, Liesegang H, Brzuszkiewicz E, Daniel R, Michiels NK, Schulte RD, Kurtz J, Rosenstiel P, Telschow A, Bornberg-Bauer E, Schulenburg H
"Host-Pathogen Coevolution: The Selective Advantage of Bacillus thuringiensis Virulence and Its Cry Toxin Genes " PLoS Biology 2015
[Online access]
- Epstein, B., Branca, A., Mudge, J., Bharti, A. K., Briskine, R. T., Farmer, A. D., Sugawara, M., Young, N. D., Sadowsky, M. J., Tiffin, P. (2012) "Population genomics of the facultatively mutualistic bacteria Sinorhizobium meliloti and S. medicae" PLoS Genetics
Accepted
- Paape, T.D., Zhou, P., Branca, A., Briskine, R., T., Young,
N.D., Tiffin, P. (2012) "Fine scale population recombination rates, hotspots and correlates of recombination in the Medicago truncatula genome" Genome Biology and Evolution
4
(5):
726-737
- Branca, A., Paape, T.D., Zhou, P., Briskine, R., Farmer,
A.D., Mudge, J., Bharti, A.K., Woodward, J.E., May, G.D., Gentzbittel,
L., Ben, C., Denny, R., Sadowsky, M.J., Ronfort, J., Bataillon, T.,
Young, N.D., Tiffin, P. (2011)"Whole-genome nucleotide diversity, recombination,,linkage disequilibrium in the model legume Medicago truncatula" PNAS
108 (42) E864-E870
- Branca, A., Gitau, C. W., Dupas, S. (2011) “Maintenance of specialized parasitoid populations through polyDNAviruses” In: Parasitoid Viruses: Symbionts and Pathogens (eds N. E. Beckage and J.-M. Drezen), Elsevier
- Branca, A. , Le Rü, B. P., Vavre F., Silvain J.-F., Dupas, S. (2011) "Intraspecific specialization of the generalist parasitoid Cotesia sesamiae revealed by polyDNAvirus polymorphism and associated with different Wolbachia infections." Molecular Ecology
20 (5) 959–971
- Faure N., Branca, A., Gigot, G., Dupas, S., Silvain, J-F. (2009) "Isolation and characterization of ten microsatellite loci in Cotesia sesamiae (Cameron) (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), a parasitoid of African stem borer pests." Molecular Ecology Resources 9 (5) 1375-1379.
- Branca, A., Vavre F., Silvain J.-F., Dupas, S. (2009) "Maintenance of adaptive differentiation by Wolbachia induced bidirectional cytoplasmic incompatibility: sib-mating and reproductive system matter." BMC Evolutionary Biology 9:185.
- Dupas, S., Gitau, C. W., Branca, A., Le Rü, B. P., Silvain, J.-F. (2008) " Evolution of a Polydnavirus Gene in Relation to Parasitoid-Host Species Immune Resistance." Journal of Heredity
99(5):491-499.
- Branca, A., Dupas, S. (2006) " A model for the study of
Wolbachia pipientis Hertig(Rickettsiales:Rickettsiaceae)-induced
cytoplasmic incompatibility in arrhenotokous haplodiploid populations:
Consequences for biological control." Annales de la Société entomologique de France 42:443-448.
- Lopez-Villavicencio, M., Branca, A., Giraud, T., Shykoff, J. (2005) "Sex-specific effect of
Microbotryum violaceum (Uredinales) spores on healthy plants of the gynodioecious Gypsophila repens (Caryophyllaceae)." American Journal of Botany 92: 896-900.
Presentations and Posters at International Conferences:
- International Conference on Lepidopteran Cereal Stem and Cob Borers in Africa (Nairobi, Kenya, October 24-28, 2005)
- Evolutionary Biology meeting (Marseille, France, September 20-22,
2006) 1st International Entomophagous Insect Conference (Minneapolis,
Minnesota July 27-31, 2009)
- Congress of the European Society for Evolutionary Biology (Uppsala, Sweden, August 20-25, 2007)
- XVIII Plant and Animal Genome Conference (San Diego, California, January 9-13 2010)
- Annual meeting of the Society of Molecular Biology and Evolution (Lyon,France, July 4-8 2010)
Project At IEB
Experimental co-evolution of Bacillus thuringiensis and Caenorhabditis elegans
DFG PRIORITY PROGRAM
The bacteria
Bacillus thuringiensis
are one of the most used
bio-pesticide in the world. These bacteria can infect a wide range of
organisms, mainly arthropods, but also nematods like Caenorhabditis elegans
. A host-parasite co-evolution experiment between Bacillus thuringiensis
and Caenorhabditis elegans
has
been performed to detect phenotypic changes during co-adaptation
process of host and parasite. My work is to go deeper inside genetic
changes occuring during the experiment, allowing the different partners
to adapt. To do so, I am mainly using next-generation sequencing and
population genetics tools on whole-genome sequence of pooled
populations.
Main Collaborator: Dr Anna Sheppard and Prof Hinrich Schulenburg, University of Kiel (http://www.uni-kiel.de/zoologie/evoecogen/schulenburg/ )