Plant molecular genetics – Genomics – Plant breeding

Dr Dominique THIS

Assistant professor – France

Département Biologie et Ecologie (BE) – Montpellier Supagro

Address

Bat. 18
 La Gaillarde, Montpellier

FRANCE

Research

I have always been interested in understanding molecular basis of drought tolerance in crops and analysing the allelic and functional diversity of candidate genes across and within species. Comparative genomics and relevant databases provide powerful tools to translate genetic information from well-studied plants into neglected crops or wild relatives of our main crops, and to study plant adaptation to abiotic stresses. This represents premises for translational genomics in agriculture.

Teaching

  • In charge of:
    • a spring semester track in “Plant Sciences”, delivered in English and open to academic mobilities
    • MSc specialisation in plant breeding and diversity (M2 level)
  • Responsibility of several courses:
    • Agrigenomics (M2 level)
    • “Designing new crops for the future” (M1 level- project-based teaching in English)
    • “Professional and personal project” (M2 level, specifically delivered to foreign students)
  • Delivering lectures and diverse teaching activities in structural plant genomics, reproduction systems, basics, innovation and participatory aspects of plant breeding
  • Coordinator of an Erasmus+ strategic partnership “ESCAPAdE” (EraSmus Curricula in Applied PlAnt SciEnces)
  • Involvement in several European and National teaching projects
    • MOBREED : Intra-African mobility European project
    • CultiVar (training in Plant Breeding): international multi-partner initiative funded by Agropolis Fondation

Selected publications

  1. Costa Alves G.S., Ferreira Torres L., De Aquino Oliveira S., Reichel T., Freire L.P., Gomes Vieira N., Vinecky F., This D., Pot D., Etienne H., Vilela Paiva L., Marraccini P., Carvalho Andrade A. 2018. Nucleotide diversity of the coding and promoter regions of DREB1D, a candidate gene for drought tolerance in Coffea Species. Tropical Plant Biology 11(1-2). 31-48.
  2. Armero Villanueva A.A., Baudouin L., Bocs S., This D. 2017. Improving transcriptome de novo assembly by using a reference genome of a related species: Translational genomics from oil palm to coconut. PloS One 12(3). e0173300 (22 p.).
  3. Blair M.W., Cortes A.J., This D. 2016. Identification of an ERECTA gene and its drought adaptation associations with wild and cultivated common bean. Plant Science 242(SI). 250-259
  4. Roorkiwal M., Nayak S.N., Thudi M., Upadhyaya H.D., Brunel D., Mournet P., This D., Sharma P.C., Varshney R.K. 2014. Allele diversity for abiotic stress responsive candidate genes in chickpea reference set using gene based SNP markers. Frontiers in Plant Science 5. 248 (11 p.). ISSN 1664-462X
  5. Droc G., Larivière D., Guignon V., Yahiaoui N., This D., Garsmeur O., Dereeper A., Hamelin C., Argout X., Dufayard J.F., Lengelle J., Baurens F.C., Cenci A., Pitollat B., D’Hont A., Ruiz M., Rouard M., Bocs S. 2013. The Banana Genome Hub. Database. The Journal of Biological Databases and Curation 2013. ISSN 1758-0463