Marie-Pierre Chapuis
PhD. University of Montpellier, France 2006
MSc. University of Montpellier, France 2002
Contact details
School of Biological Sciences
University of Sydney
The Macleay Building A12
Sydney, NSW 2006
Australia
Email: chapuimp[at]supagro.inra.fr
Phone: +61 02 9351 7503
Fax: +61 02 9351 4119
Main Research Interests
My research is mainly focused on the population biology and evolution of outbreaking insects using locusts as a model species. These crop pests are subject to huge and unpredictable increases in population density, associated with a switch from shy and cryptic to highly active and aggregative behaviour. I use molecular, behavioural, and evolutionary ecology to understand the environmental conditions influencing the evolution of population outbreaks and extreme density-dependent phenotypic plasticity in these species. Furthermore, Orthopteran microsatellite loci are prone to high prevalence of null alleles and high similarity between their flanking regions. As a result, my research also contributes to an improved understanding of the molecular evolution of the microsatellite markers in this Order, as well as the development of specialized statistical tools for genotype analyses. Finally, the advent of functional genomics has recently incited investigations in locusts to find the major regulatory genes acting early in the phase change from the low population density solitarious to the high population density gregarious behaviour. I have been recently become involved in this promising work with the ultimate goal of improved locust control, i.e. preventing the change from the solitarious to the gregarious phase.
During my PhD in Montpellier, France, I focused on the cosmopolitan migratory locust, Locusta migratoria, under the co-supervision of Arnaud Estoup (Center for Population Biology and Management, CBGP-INRA), Yannis Michalakis (Genetics and Evolution of Infectious Diseases, GEMI-CNRS), and Michel Lecoq (Locust Ecology and Control, AMIS-CIRAD). In this species, I investigated (i) the role of the propensity to outbreak in shaping the worldwide and regional patterns of population genetic variation using microsatellite markers, and (ii) the effects of both parental crowding and genetic variation on the expression of phase traits using laboratory experiments. For more details on my results, see a summary of my PhD in Metaleptea 26(1):9.
It was natural for me to join the Molecular Ecology Lab at the University of Sydney to work with Greg Sword and Steve Simpson, considering our common interests in ecology and evolution of locust species. My current research focuses on the Australian plague locust, Chortoicetes terminifera. I study the population genetics of this species with the aims to improve our understanding of the spatial and temporal population dynamics of gregarious populations of C. terminifera, and to assess the potential of microsatellite markers to infer sources and routes of invading hopper bands or locust swarms. This project involves one PhD student, Julie-Anne Popple, and close collaborations with the Australian Plague Locust Commission and the Department of Agriculture and Food of Western Australia. Moreover, I have recently become involved in the identification of candidate behavioural phase genes in C. terminifera and L. migratoria, using microarrays, real-time RT-PCR, and RNAi gene silencing techniques. In parallel, I conduct natural experiments with the goal to partition the respective importance of phase, genetic similarity, and environmental components in expression profiles of candidate genes. This project involves one PhD student, Darron Cullen, and close collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing.
Papers
Pascual., M., M.P. Chapuis, F. Mestres, J. Balanyŕ, R.B. Huey, G.W. Gilchrist, L. Serra, and A. Estoup. 2007. Introduction history of Drosophila subobscura in the New World: a microsatellite based survey using ABC methods. Molecular Ecology 16(15): 3069-3083.
Chapuis, M.-P., and A. Estoup. 2007. Microsatellite null alleles and estimation of population differentiation. Molecular Biology and Evolution 24(3): 621–631. [FreeNA software available at http://www.montpellier.inra.fr/URLB/]
Chapuis, M.-P., A. Loiseau, Y. Michalakis, M. Lecoq, and A. Estoup. 2005. Characterization and PCR multiplexing of polymorphic microsatellite loci for the locust Locusta migratoria. Molecular Ecology Notes 5: 554-557.
Chapuis M.-P., A. Estoup, A. Augé-Sabatier, A. Foucart, M. Lecoq, and Y. Michalakis. 2008. Genetic variation for parental effects on propensity to gregarise in Locusta migratoria. BMC Evolutionary Biology 8: 37.
Chapuis M.-P., M. Lecoq, Y. Michalakis, A. Loiseau, G. A. Sword, S. Piry, and A. Estoup. 2008. Do outbreaks affect genetic population structure? A worldwide survey in Locusta migratoria, a pest plagued by microsatellite null alleles. Molecular Ecology. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-294X.2008.03869.x
Chapuis M.-P., J.-A. Popple, S. J. Simpson, M. Steinbauer, L. McCulloch, A. Estoup, J.-F. Martin, and G. A. Sword. In press. Eight polymorphic microsatellite loci for the Australian plague locust, Chortoicetes terminifera. Molecular Ecology Resources. doi: 10.1111/j.1755-0998.2008.02204.x