My research focuses on understanding the mechanisms driving local adaptation in plant populations using ecological genomics. By conducting high throughput phenotyping experiments in natural conditions, I investigate the geographical scale at which local adaptation occurs, the ecological selective pressures, and the underlying genetics. My current projects highlight the importance of microbes and herbivores in shaping locally adaptive variation in European populations of A. thaliana.
Current projects
> Local adaptation in Swedish A. thaliana populations
Publications
Brachi B*, Meyer C*, Villoutreix R, Platt A, Morton T, Roux F, and Bergelson J (2015). Co-selected genes determine adaptive variation in herbivore resistance throughout the native range of Arabidopsis thaliana. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, In Press
Brachi B, Villoutreix R, Faure N et al. (2013) Investigation of the geographical scale of adaptive phenological variation and its underlying genetics in Arabidopsis thaliana. Molecular Ecology, 22, 4222–4240.
Brachi B, Faure N, Bergelson J, Cuguen J, Roux F (2013) Genome-wide association mapping of flowering time in Arabidopsis thaliana in nature: genetics for underlying components and reaction norms across two successive years. Acta Botanica Gallica, 160, 205219.
Brachi B, Aimé C, Glorieux C, Cuguen J, Roux F (2012) Adaptive value of phenological traits in stressful environments: predictions based on seed production and laboratory natural selection. PloS one, 7, e32069.
Brachi B, Morris GP, Borevitz JO (2011) Genome-wide association studies in plants: the missing heritability is in the field. Genome biology, 12, 232.
Hancock AM, Brachi B, Faure N et al. (2011) Adaptation to climate across the Arabidopsis thaliana genome. Science (New York, N.Y.), 334, 83–6.
Garraud C, Brachi B, Dufay M, Touzet P, Shykoff JA (2011) Genetic determination of male sterility in gynodioecious Silene nutans. Heredity, 106, 757–64.
Brachi B, Faure N, Horton M et al. (2010) Linkage and association mapping of Arabidopsis thaliana flowering time in nature. PLoS genetics, 6, e1000940.
Atwell S, Huang YS, Vilhjálmsson BJ et al. (2010) Genome-wide association study of 107 phenotypes in Arabidopsis thaliana inbred lines. Nature, 465, 627–31.
Dufay M, Lahiani E, Brachi B (2010) Gender variation and inbreeding depression in gynodioecious‐gynomonoecious Silene nutans (Caryophyllaceae). International Journal of Plant Sciences, 171.