Back in Panamá, I started working on hornworts during my bachelor's degree and, frankly, there were just 5-6 people interested in the world. In 2003, I had the opportunity to do my master's with the hornwort expert, Karen Renzaglia at Southern Illinois University. During my doctoral degree at UCONN, with Bernard Goffinet, I explored phylogenetics and population genetics of one species with separate sexes and potentially lacking any kind of sexual reproduction. In 2012, during my postdoc with...

« Après six ans et demi au laboratoire de Juan Carlos Villarreal, à l’Institut de biologie intégrative et des systèmes (IBIS), il est temps pour moi de tourner une nouvelle page. Je commence un poste de professeure au département de biologie végétale de l’Universidad de Murcia, en Espagne, un retour aux sources pour moi. Je suis arrivée au labo de Juan Carlos en mai 2018 pour un projet postdoctoral de deux ans… Je pense qu’une telle prolongation témoigne que je me suis senti très bien au sein ...

Cette semaine, Philip Bell-Doyon, un étudiant doctoral de notre labo present son séminaire de doctorat intitulé : "Diversité biologique et chimique associée aux écosystèmes forestiers boréaux intacts". La recherche de Philip porte sur la caractérisation de la diversité biologique et chimique associée aux écosystèmes forestiers boréaux intacts. Philip étudie en detail les communautés de lichens, de bryophytes et de microorganismes du sol (bactéries et champignons) entre des vieilles sapini...

Dennis Escolástico-Ortiz successfully defended his doctoral thesis on the population genomics, genotype/microbiome interaction and functional diversity of the bacteria  associated with the moss Racomitrium lanuginosum.  Dennis started a postdoc at Natural Resources Canada. We hope the best for Dennis ! Our lab has three new members. For the summer, we have the visit of Ève Gaubert from Université des Sciences et Technologies de Bordeaux (France). Eve will spend a month in the lab worki...

The Chocó-Darién region is one of the 25 global biodiversity hotspots.  Our lab was invited to do fieldwork in a remote area in Río Balsas, Darién. The project, spearheaded by Dr. Catherine Potvin (Mcgill University), aims at documenting this important biodiversity hotspot while sharing and exchanging knowledge with local Emberá communities. Dr. Potvin's team has established a long-term 15-ha plot in an old growth forest with trees of over 60 meters. With Adriel Sierra Pinilla we traveled...

El año 2023 fue un año transcendental para los panameños. Con gran preocupación por la falta de un plan detallado a largo plazo por parte de las autoridades locales, nosotros escribimos una nota al editor de la revista Nature. Nuestra nota hace eco sobre la nota escrita por el colega Iván Landires (y colaboradores) en la revista Science    Le traducimos nuestra nota en Nature: "Panamá se encuentra en una encrucijada de conservación de la biodiversidad y desarrollo económico. El...

Hot off the press ! We have just published the most comprehensive phylogenomic study of bryophytes. An effort born out the collaboration between the leaders of the goflag project and several North American, Latin American, European and Australian institutions. The goflag project is spearheaded by Gordon Burleigh, Stuart McDaniel, Christine Davis (U. of Florida), and Emily Sessa (New York Botanical Garden) and they developed a large number of loci (over 400) for all flagellate land plants ...

We lost the director of our Institute, Louis Bernatchez. Since my arrival to the IBIS in 2016, Louis showed extraordinary support.  He was also the best example of leadership I have seen so far. His intellectual contribution to science is astronomical and his passion and support for his students and staff are legendary.  We are all saddened by the loss of a giant. JC, September 29, 2023

Exciting news about our research regarding moss-symbiosis. Moss-bacterial communities have a core microbiome and bacteria recruited from environmental sources, and symbiotic N2-fixing bacteria contribute to the N budget in northern ecosystems through biological nitrogen fixation. This process may be affected by the abundance of diazotrophs and moss nutrient content. As part of his thesis research, Dennis Escolástico and collaborators (Jean-Philippe Bellenger, Charlotte Blasi, Nicolas De...

Nous avons des nouvelles de notre équipe de travail. Marta et Annie St-Louis ont fait un jour de vulgarisation sur les lichens à la Maison Léon Provancher. En plus, Philip vient de publier (voir pdf) des lichens del'Archipel-de-Mingan.  Philip a fait un entrevue sur la diversité et l'importance des lichens de la Côte-Nord. Bravo !! ------------ We have news from our lab. Marta and Annie St-Louis shared her passion and knowledge of lichens with the public at La Maison Léon Provanc...