Personality is a defining characteristic of all humans, but did you know that animals also have personalities? In behavioral ecology, personality is defined as consistent behavioral differences among individuals of the same species. Yet how these individual differences develop remains largely unknown. In this new publication by our PhD student Justine Bélik, we demonstrated that personality…
Category: article
First Epigenetic Clock in a Self-Fertilizing Vertebrate
🧬 Do you know what an epigenetic clock is? Throughout an organism’s life, epigenetic marks (such as DNA methylation) change in predictable ways. By analysing these marks, we can infer the chronological age of an individual. These predictive models, called epigenetic clocks, have been built across the tree of life: in humans, mammals, birds, reptiles, fish,…
The first epigenetic clock on the mangrove rivulus is in preprint !
Justine Bélik has published as a preprint the first epigenetic clock in the mangrove rivulus, and the first ever on a self-fertilizing species. She has been working on brain tissue samples from 96 individuals from Emerson Point Preserve, Florida, up to 1000 days of age. With this clock, we’re able to predict the chronological age…
New article in Belgian Journal of Zoology
Anthony Mathiron, our former post-doc researcher, published his last data collected at LEAP in the Belgian Journal of Zoology, a completely free access journal managed by the Royal Belgian Zoological Society. This article is entitled : ” Water-borne cortisol levels show individuality and predict bold/shy behaviors in the self-fertilizing fish Kryptolebias marmoratus”. It is the…
New publication in collaboration with our colleagues of Nancy
UNamur and ULorraine are collaborating for few years on a topics related to fish domestication and acclimation/adaptation to a controlled environment. A first article has been published by Céline Chevalier in the excellent journal “Biological Research” and can be found here. The title is “Comparative study of the growth, stress status and reproductive capabilities of…
Editorial in Epigenomes
Frédéric Silvestre has published an editorial view with his colleague Dr Bambarendage (University of Michigan) for a special issue of Epigenomes about environmental epigenetics. This editorial summarises the current questions in ecological and evolutionary epigenetics and introduces the original articles published in this special issue. You can read this editorial here. Download QR
New publication about the insecticide permethrin
Our post-doc researcher Anthony Mathiron just published a research article in Aquatic Toxicology about the immediate and delayed effects of the insecticide permethrin on our fish model, the mangrove rivulus. This species is becoming a great model choice for ecotoxicology studies and the roles of epigenetics, showing a naturally very low level of genetic diversity….
New article in Aquatic Toxicology
Our new research article is now online in Aquatic Toxicology. It investigates the effects of methylmercury exposure in early life stages of mangrove rivulus fish at behavioral, gene expression and methylation levels. Congrats to Valentine Chapelle for her work! This article is a part of her PhD thesis. https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1gias,3oDQuOF4 Download QR
Review article in Epigenomes
Our PhD student Valentine Chapelle has published a review article in the specialized journal “Epigenomes” entitled “Population epigenetics: the extent of DNA methylation variation in wild animal populations“. In this article, Valentine brought together the up-to-date research studies investigating the DNA methylation variability in wild animal species. This is an important step into the understanding…
Special issue of Epigenomes on the way
Frederic Silvestre has been invited as a guest-editor with Dr. Bambarendage Perera for a special issue of the scientific journal Epigenomes, focusing on environmental epigenetics. Submissions are open ! https://www.mdpi.com/journal/epigenomes/special_issues/environmental_epigenomes Download QR