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INTEGRATIVE ORGANISMAL BIOLOGY Associate Professor Laboratoire d'Ethologie Expérimentale et Comparée University Sorbonne Paris Nord |
Animals are exposed to a wide variety of challenges and changes in their environment. To survive and reproduce in this dynamic environment, individuals have to alter their phenotype particularly physiology and behavior in order to cope with or avoid challenges. Yet different strategies differ in their short-term costs, as well as their long-term fitness consequences. Additionally, increasing evidence suggests that coping strategies are tightly linked with early-life environment. It is increasingly recognized that the effects of early-life environment and phenotypic flexibility may be mediated by epigenetic mechanisms. I am interested by the evolution and the mechanisms mediating these different coping strategies, their consequences on phenotype and fitness and by how conditions during early development shape phenotype and performances later in life. My research bridges molecular biology, physiology, behavior and ecology to address these fundamental questions.
