The DIADE Research Unit (DIversity - Adaptation - plant DEvelopment) aims to understand the diversification of tropical plants, one of the main original reservoirs of biodiversity, and for which conservation, management and exploitation are an important issue for Sustainable Development.

We investigate the nature and role of structural and functional changes in the genome, diversity and populations structure, particularly during speciation processes, and adaptation to natural environmental variations or human-induced changes.

The research belongs to the field of functional and evolutionary biology. It relies on genetics, epi-genetics, developmental biology, physiology, systematics, evolution. It also integrates other approaches, such as modeling, remote sensing, ecology, etc., when required by collaborative projects. The systems under study make it possible to compare model plants (rice, Arabidopsis) and species of agronomic or ecological interest (coffee trees, filaos, yams, maize, palm trees, mils).

Different levels of analysis, from cell to species complex, are considered. For example,

• fine-tuning the expression of key developmental genes;
• the monitoring of developmental transitions;
• the evolutionary history of gene families;
• molecular determinants (genes or gene networks) of the phenotypic variation of agronomic or ecological traits;
• the dynamics and the plasticity of the genomes ;
• diversity and evolution of populations in response to ecological and human factors.

The seven teams forming the Unit belong to IRD, University of Montpellier and CIRAD.