Roxana YOCKTENG

Research interests

1. Evolution of plant-animal interactions

My research focuses in understanding the evolution of plant-animal interactions and its consequences in plant speciation, using molecular phylogenetic methods. I study these processes using as example the plants of the family Passifloraceae. The phylogenetic framework allows to reconstruct the evolution of plant traits associated to plant-animal interactions and to test the correlated evolution between plant and animal traits.

The Passifloraceae plants present associations with different animal species. Species of genus Passiflora are well known for being the host plants of larvae of Butterflies of tribe Heliconiine. Species of Passiflora present diverse morphological and chemical traits that have probably evolved to defend them against caterpillars.

Flower morphology in plants of genus Passiflora seems to be adapted to a specific type of pollinator : bees, hummingbirds or bats. For instance, the presence of tubular flowers and the pollination by hummingbirds are probably correlated.

2. Floral developmental evolution in the order Zingiberales

I am currently associate researcher at the Specht Lab at the University California in Berkeley.
I am implicated in a large project that studies the genetics of the floral development in the order Zingiberales. The main objective is to identify the majority of the genes that have played a role in the evolution of the diversity of floral forms in the order using RT-PCR, RNA-seq Illumina and in situ hybridization.

3. Specialisation and speciation in Microbotryum

I also collaborate with Tatiana Giraud to study the evolutionary mechanisms associated to the specialization and speciation of the fungus Microbotryum violaceum.
Microbotryum violaceum produces the anther smut disease in more than 90 plant species from the family Caryophyllaceae. In order to identify positively selected genes, we have created libraries of EST for four sibling species of this fungus Microbase.

CV

• 2005 - present : Associate Professor (Maître de conférences) - Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France
   
• 2010 - present : Associate Researcher - Specht lab - University of California, Berkeley
   
• 2004 - 2005 : Post-doc - Lab. Écologie, Systématique et Évolution, Univ. Paris XI, Orsay, France.
   
• 2002-2004 : Temporary assistant professor (ATER) - Lab. Écologie, Systématique et Évolution, Univ. Paris XI, Orsay, France
   
• 1999-2003 : PhD- Lab. Écologie, Systématique et Évolution, Univ. Paris XI, Orsay, France
   
• 1997-1999 : MS Biology - Universidad de los Andes, Bogota, Colombia
   
• 1990-1996 : BS Biology - Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia.