ArTIFICE

To address the fundamental question of whether evolution is repeatable or contingent, we need to study parallel adaptation, i.e. independent adaptation events to the same ecological niche. Cheese fungi are excellent models for parallel adaptation studies, as many distantly related species have been selected by humans for cheese making. These recent adaptation events, occurring under strong human selection, provide good models for elucidating adaptation processes. Moreover, fungi are tractable model eukaryotes with many advantages for experimentation and genomic analyses. I will study Geotrichum candidum using genomic, historical and experimental approaches to understand its domestication history and the genomic mechanisms of adaptation. By comparing findings with previous studies on three other cheese-making fungi, I will investigate whether multiple adaptation events to cheese were convergent, with the same mechanisms involved and the same traits/genes/genomic regions targeted.