Maéva TecherEvolutionary & Integrative Biologist
Research overview

Quest 02 / Colony and country scale

Novel adaptations and global invasion genomics

How do organisms respond after host shifts, bottlenecks, and biological invasions?

Varroa mites provide a system for studying genetic variation, demography, and human-mediated movement during a global host shift.

Parasite evolutionHost shiftsInvasion genomics
INTERFACE / AVAILABLEEVIDENCE / ONGOING
Two honey bees and a Varroa mite under magnification.
Generations to decades

RESEARCH BACKGROUND

Why this system?

Biological invasions bring demographic change, repeated introductions, and global transport into an observable historical interval. Varroa mites make it possible to compare native and introduced populations while keeping published evidence separate from an atlas still in preparation.

QUEST DOSSIER / TRACEABLE EVIDENCE

Contribution and methods

First author of the linked 2022 demographic-history study; contribution wording for the atlas is [NEEDS MAÉVA REVIEW].

Open linked paper

QUESTIONS / SYSTEMS / APPROACH

From biological observation to evolutionary mechanism.

Guiding questions

  1. 01

    Which genomic patterns accompany establishment on a new host?

  2. 02

    How do bottlenecks and repeated introductions alter population structure?

  3. 03

    Do independent host shifts show shared or distinct genomic histories?

Biological systems

  • Varroa mites across native and novel honey bee hosts
  • Native-range and globally invasive populations
  • Repeated host shifts and human-mediated dispersal

Approaches

  • Global population and invasion genomics
  • Demographic inference and ancestry reconstruction
  • Comparative genomics of independent host shifts
  • Integration of genomic, ecological, and historical records

NEXT QUESTIONS

Research directions

01

Resolve the genomic histories of host-switching lineages.

02

Test the relative contributions of standing variation and population contact.

03

Connect invasion history to present-day population structure.

COLLABORATION SIGNAL

Interested in this question?

I welcome collaborations connecting field biology, comparative genomics, and reproducible analysis.

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