Molecular Evolutionary Genetics


The main goal of our research group is to provide a holistic scientific knowledge of molecular biodiversity. We are interested in understanding the evolutionary patterns and processes, and the molecular evolutionary changes underlying phenotypic functional innovations (in single genes, gene families or complete genomes). We use of molecular data to know the origin, diversification and the evolutionary history of genes and species, doing research in the scientific areas of comparative and functional genomics, phylogenomics, population genomics, and bioinformatics & computational genomics. We combine theoretical, analytical, experimental and computational approaches, to address compelling topics such as: 1) gene family evolution, 2) invertebrate phylogenomics, 3) genome assembly and annotation, 4) adaptation genomics, 5) speciation genomics, 6) gene expression evolution, 7) the evolution of repetitive elements (e.g. transposable elements, tRNAs) and, 8) software development.

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Julio Rozas

Professor of Genetics.

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Marta Riutort

Professor of Genetics

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Alejandro Sánchez-Gracia

Senior Lecturer of Genetics

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Marco Mariotti

Ramon y Cajal Researcher

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Jesús Lozano-Fernandez

Lecturer of Genetics

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Evolutionary Genomics & Bioinformatics in Arthropoda
J. Rozas

Our research focuses on obtaining and analyzing high-quality genome data (long-read based and chromosome-level assemblies) to better understand of the mechanisms that originate and determine the evolutionary fate of multigene families, and to understand the genome basis of adaptive radiations.

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Phylogenomics & Biogeography in Platyhelminthes
M. Riutort

Using planarians as model organisms, our team has focused the research on phylogeographic and population genetic analyses to understand how genetic diversity is shaped over space and time, and to the study of reproductive strategies and how they contribute to shape diversity.

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Adaptation Genomics in model and non-model organisms
A. Sánchez-Gracia

Our research seeks to understand the molecular evolutionary mechanisms underlying biological diversity. We are especially interested in detecting the genomic signatures of polygenic adaptation in natural populations.

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Comparative and Functional Genomics of translational recoding
M. Mariotti

Our main objective is to elucidate the biology of stop codon readthrough, a form of translational recoding in which a stop codon supports amino acid insertion instead of terminating protein synthesis.

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Phylogenomics & Chronology in deep-time
J. Lozano-Fernandez

Our main objective is to unveil the history of the deeper nodes of the animal tree of life, particularly those that are challenging to solve, using genome-scale data and divergence time estimation methods.

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