Presentation
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Research
The central and unifying theme of the unit is evolution and its corollary, biodiversity. The approach is multidisciplinary, involving genomics and genetics, behavior, and ecology, as indicated by the three poles that structure the laboratory. Thus, its approach to evolution is conducted at different levels of integration, from the genome to the species and sometimes to the community. Various aspects of evolution are explored: adaptation, speciation, genome-environment interactions, and interactions between species within an ecosystem. Studies also focus on individual levels, such as behavior or genome plasticity. These keywords are found as cross-cutting themes in the activities of the laboratory’s three poles.
History
The “Evolution, Genomes, Behavior, Ecology” laboratory, or EGCE, is the successor to the CNRS “Laboratory of Evolutionary Genetics and Biometry,” founded in the early 1950s. It initially focused on the genetic bases of life history traits in Drosophila. The early 1960s marked the rise of population genetics, expanded to various arthropod species and studies on speciation. Gradually, the development of increasingly powerful DNA sequencing techniques allowed molecular approaches, previously confined to model organisms, to be extended to a wide diversity of organisms. In 2001, research in ecology and the environment, in close association with countries in the Global South (Africa and Latin America), led to the creation of the IRD unit “Biodiversity and Evolution of Tropical Insects” within the laboratory. This unit merged in 2015 with the CNRS laboratory to form the EGCE Joint Research Unit (UMR) with three supervising bodies: CNRS, Université Paris-Sud, and IRD. EGCE is a founding member of the Institute for the Diversity, Ecology, and Evolution of the Living World (IDEEV), a research federation created in 2010. In 2022, the laboratory moved into the new building created for IDEEV at Université Paris-Saclay, alongside the other two founding laboratories of the federation: Ecology, Systematics, and Evolution (ESE) and Quantitative Genetics and Evolution – GQE Le Moulon. A fourth unit, UE-VS, has since joined IDEEV.
EGCE is organized into three poles:
— Evolution and Genomes Pole
— Evolution and Behavior Pole
— Evolution and Ecology Pole
Teaching
EGCE’s lecturers and professors teach at all levels (Bachelor’s, Master’s, and beyond) in various fields related to evolution and the diversity of life. These fields include Scientific Methodology, Animal Biology, Developmental Biology, Genetics, Population Genetics, Genomics, Evolution, and Ecology. Additionally, several researchers give lectures on topics closely related to their research in various Master’s programs.
Address/Contact
Evolution, Genomes, Behavior, Ecology Laboratory (EGCE)
12 route 128
91190 Gif-sur-Yvette
Tel: +33 1 69 15 49 81