J-P Verta - Associate Professor - Nord University

Welcome

The overarching goal of my research is to understand the mechanisms that create and maintain phenotypic diversity from the molecular to the species level. To reach this goal, I study the genetic and molecular basis of complex adaptive phenotypes such as life histories, as such traits underlie much of biological diversity and provide keys to understand evolution.

Topics

Evolution is the fundamental source of diversity of life. Over 150 years after Darwin, we are still continuing to discover new and amazing ways evolution contributes to biological diversity, both within a species and among them. Understanding the mechanisms that are responsible of evolution has been, and still is, a central goal in biology.

All biology centres on survival until reproduction, which makes variation in life-history traits one of the central sources of diversity. Individuals irrespective of species often make trade-offs between the life-history traits such as growth, survival and reproduction. Very little is know about the molecular basis of variation in different life-history strategies, yet a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of life-history variation is key to explain the evolutionary process (see Verta et al 2020 on this topic).

Systems genetics, the study of how interacting levels of gene regulation (such as epigenetic marks and gene transcription) combine genetic information and translate it to produce biological diversity, is a powerful tool to dissect the functional mechanisms behind trait variation. I use systems genetics to bring insight into the molecular mechanisms that generate and sustain variation in adaptive physiological and life-history traits, and thus explain the evolution of biological diversity at the molecular level (see Verta, Landry & MacKay 2016, Verta & Jones 2019, Verta et al 2020, Verta et al 2021, Verta & Jacobs 2021 on this topic).

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