I had a exciting year of study and research (AER in French or sabbatical). I spent time in Lille with Christelle Fraïsse learning about population genomics and then, some time in Toulouse working with Pierre-Marc Delaux on the genomic interactions between hornworts/cyanobacteria/mycorrhizal fungi. Yes, we are back to hornworts! I also travelled to Leiden to visit leading experts on cycad biology and metabolomics, Angélica Cibrián-Jaramillo (Naturalis) and Francisco “Paco” Barona-Gómez (U. of Leiden) and their fabulous team.
In May 2025, I organised, along with Yann le Polain de Waroux, a workshop in the lower Balsa Region, Darién, Panamá (my first attempt to do trandisciplinary research). The workshop was called: ” Visiones comunitarias para un Darién sostenible: hacia la conservación de la biodiversidad y el desarrollo sostenible en la cuenca del Río Balsas”. It was exciting to see how young (and older) people care about the environment and try to reconcile conservation, biodiversity and socio-economical needs. My new biological research in Darién is taking shape, it’s challenging and fascinating going back to the tropics.
My laboratory is metamorphosing gradually and the first generation of doctoral students is graduating. Dr. Dennis Escolástico-Ortiz has already a postodoctoral position. He just submitted his last chapter on clonality and the relationship between moss genotype and microbiome. You can find the preprint here. Katy Lemay, a talented undergraduate student, is doing a fun project (watch this video!) on the lichens of the Chute du Bras-Pilote, piloted by the First Nation des Innus Esssipit. Katy is working closely with Philip Bell-Doyon, a doctoral student and, the emerging expert on Québec lichens, especially calicioids.
Adriel Sierra is finishing this summer and his papers will be out in the fall! For the time being, Adriel is doing an internship with the microbial phyllosphere’s expert, Geneviève Lajoie. Lilisbeth Rodríguez-Castro finished her master’s degree, published her paper on the phyllosphere microbiome of the only epiphytic gymnosperm. Lilisbeth is starting a doctoral degree with the phyllosphere expert, Isabelle Laforest-Lapointe. Best of luck to Lilisbeth, she’s always bienvenue in our lab, of course.
My laboratory welcomes Ariane Fortin, she’s doing a master’s degree on biological crusts in the subarctic using metagenomic approaches and she’s also interested in restoration ecology! Ariane is co-supervised by Dr. Mélina Guêné-Nanchen, an expert on restoration ecology of boreal peatlands.
Our postdoctoral researcher, Gabriel Peñaloza-Bojacá just published a paper on hornwort phylogenomics. This is the most comprehensive (234 genes and 79 species) phylogeny of hornworts. We recovered ancient hybridization events, provided a framework to study character evolution and revealed a Carboniferous origin of the hornwort pyrenoid. We also learned that our phylogenomic study of bryophytes (November 2023), in which Gabriel is the first co-author, and published in the American Journal of Botany was the most cited in the journal (77 times until now) and the most downloaded in 2024 (over 6000 times and >10,800 views!).
Gabriel is currently working on exciting projects involving microbiomes, transcriptomes, metabolomes of cycads. Stay tuned !
I like to thank the undergraduates who worked in the lab this and last year (2024, 2025): Alissa, Justin, Alyson. Gracias !
Oh, I nearly forgot, something quite important:
Dr. Marta Alonso-García started a new position in Murcia (Spain) and she’s still collaborating with us. Marta just submitted a paper on antibiotic resistant genes in reindeer lichens from Québec lichen woodlands. See the preprint here. Best of luck to Marta.
More about new publications here.
Voilà, an exciting year is coming and we’ll keep you updated.
JCVA 26/07/2025, Québec