Arnaud Martin

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Master in Molecular and Cellular Biology (Universite Lyon I / Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon, 2007)
PhD in Evolutionary Genetics (University of California Irvine, 2012)
Post-Doctoral Fellow (Cornell University, 2012-2014)

Post-Doctoral Fellow (University of California Berkeley, 2014-present)

I am broadly interested in the genetic basis of adaptation. I compiled a bibliography about the known mutations and genes underlying phenotypic variation. The data is available as an Excel file on the DRYAD data repository website.

My experimental work with butterflies is primarily centered on the developmental genetics of wing patterning, with a focus on the morphogenetic mechanisms that create positional information on the wing. Butterfly wings, especially in Heliconius, are a crucible of evolutionary wizardry that provide an unique opportunity to study how phenotypes are tinkered over time. I have been working extensively with Bob Reed to characterize the developmental architecture of pattern variation, with a particular focus on the optix and WntA genes.

While working with Bob Reed on butterfly wing patterning, I had the chance to be hosted by the lab of Tom Schilling at UC Irvine, a cross-over that enhanced my developmental culture. Continuing on that path, I now joined the Patel Lab at UC Berkeley with the goal to develop butterfly wing patterns as a model system for comparative developmental biology. A providential technique is provided by the power of CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing. I successfully generated mutants for developmental genes in the crustacean Parhyale hawaiiensis, and will next assess the feasibility of this technique in the lepidopterans Junonia coenia and Ephestia kuhniella.

Recent publications