Watch our documentary: "Searching for the mangrove rivulus"
The Laboratory of Evolutionary and Adaptive Physiology LEAP (Silvestre Lab) from the University of Namur, Belgium, is one of the 4 laboratories belonging to the Research Unit in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology (URBE) within the Department of Biology. It is also a member of the Institute of Life, Earth and Environment (ILEE).
Our researches belong to integrative, comparative and evolutionary physiology. We aim to investigate the impacts of environmental changes (pollution, temperature, salinity, etc) on aquatic organisms at different levels: molecular, physiological, phenotypic. Different aquatic species are studied with priorities given to fish models. If we are using zebrafish as a common laboratory model, our main current interests concern two killifish species: the mangrove rivulus, Kryptolebias marmoratus, and the Turquoise killifish, Nothobranchius furzeri. The former has a unique mixed-mating system that allows self-fertilization, while the latest has a very short life-span (around 20 weeks). Our approaches try to understand how these organisms are affected by environmental stress and how they can acclimate, adapt and evolve. The mangrove rivulus, with its very low genetic diversity, is a perfect model to study the role of epigenetics in adaptation and evolution, while the turquoise killifish is great to decipher the interplay between pollutants and aging. We have developed a workflow of DNA methylation analysis and strive to correlate environmental cues, epigenetic mechanisms, molecular phenotype (at transcriptomic and proteomic levels) and organism phenotype, mainly of behavioural traits. We are combining laboratory experiments (e.g. pollutant exposure, DNA methylation analysis, fish respirometry, fish behaviour) with bioinformatic analyses and field experiments and sampling (in Florida and Belize). All together we aim at investigating proximate (mechanistic) and ultimate (evolutionary) consequences of environmental changes on organisms.
Recent News
- 3rd Joint Congress on Evolutionary BiologyAugust 5, 2024The 3rd Joint Congress on Evolutionary Biology was held in Montreal in July 2024. It is a huge scientific […]
- Field trip 2024 in the PyreneanJuly 15, 2024The summer 2024 pluridisciplinary field trip took 31 students from all scientific disciplines to the Pyrenean […]
- New research project in EcuatorJune 21, 2024We are proud and happy to start a new collaboration with the Universidad Central del Ecuador, thanks to […]
- LEAP was at Banyuls for the ECOBIM 2024 conferenceMay 25, 2024After having organized the ECOBIM conference in Namur in 2022, the LEAP was present in Banyuls-sur-mer (La […]
- A new post-doc researcher at LEAP !May 16, 2024We are happy to welcome Dr Noëmie Guirandy as a post-doc researcher in the rivulus team. Noëmie has recently […]
- Frédéric has been reelected at the RBZSJanuary 18, 2024After a first term of 2 years, Frédéric Silvestre has been reelected at the Presidency of the Royal Belgian […]
- LEAP was at SICB annual conference !January 18, 2024Frédéric Silvestre was participating to the annual conference of the Society for Integrative and Comparative […]
- Congrats to Justine for her nomination at “Bauchau Award”December 21, 2023Our teaching assistant Justine Belik has showed all her scientific and pedagogic skills during the 2023 […]
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” Charles Darwin
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