Sébastien DUPERRON

I investigate the diversity, functioning and evolution of symbioses between chemosynthetic bacteria and marine metazoans. My research focuses on animal biology (effect of symbiosis on tissues, transmission modes, life cycle, nutritional role, impact on hosts) and microbial ecology (identification of bacterial partners and their metabolism, bacteria in the environment). Part of my work deals with Bathymodiolinae, symbiotic mussels, which are a model groups for me, while another part addresses the diversity of symbioses in understudied groups, in a more naturalistic approach (chitons, sunken wood limpets). This approach leads to fruitful comparisons between functionallly similar symbioses which have evolved independantly by convergence, and to think about their evolution. Techniques I use range from microscopy to molecular biology.