Frederic, Mery

photo, Frederic Mery
Group leader at CNRS, Gif-sur-Yvette, France

Spéciation chez les drosophiles

Tèl. 33 1 69 82 37 32
Fax 33 1 69 82 37 36

Thèmes de Recherche

More information on our group can be found on http://epcc-drosophila.blogspot.com/
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If variations in memory capacities have been observed among closely-related species, the relationship between environmental conditions and evolution of these capacities have only been rarely studied despite the importance of this topic in the understanding of the evolution of behavior. Memory has long been considered as a unique and continuous process of information storage and degradation. However, recent studies have shown that this process could be divided in different distinct phases separated in time and in their functional mechanism. To have a better comprehension of the evolutionary biology of cognitive abilities, it is therefore important to understand the different natural selection pressures favoring one or another memory phase, the fitness related costs of these different memory phases and the constraints on their evolution. The approach I took is based on studying the direct and correlated responses in selection experiments, using fruit flies (Drosophila) as a model system. It allows one to observe the evolutionary process directly while controlling for confounding factors.
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Curriculum vitae
1995-1998 National Advanced School of Agronomy, Montpellier (France)
1999-2003 Ph.D. in biology, University of Fribourg (Switzerland)
2003-2006 Postdoc, University of Fribourg (Switzerland)
2006---------Permanent Researcher CR2, CNRS, Gif Sur Yvette (France)
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Publications

  • LAGASSE F, DEVAUD JM and MERY F 2009 A switch from cycloheximide-resistant consolidated memory to cycloheximide-sensitive reconsolidation and extinction in Drosophila Journal of Neuroscience 29(7): 2225-2230
  • MERY F, VARELA S, DANCHIN E and BLANCHET S, PAREJO D, COOLEN I, WAGNER R 2009 Public versus personal information for mate copying in an invertebrate Current Biology IN PRESS:
  • MERY F, BELAY A, SO A, SOKOLOWSKI M and KAWECKI TJ 2007 Natural Polymorphism Affecting Learning and Memory in Drosophila PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCE USA 104(32): 13051-13055
  • MERY F, PONT J, PREAT T and KAWECKI TJ 2007 Experimental evolution of olfactory memory in Drosophila melanogaster Physiological and Biochemical Zoology 80(4): 399-406
  • KAWECKI TJ and MERY F 2006 Genetically idiosyncratic responses of Drosophila melanogaster populations to selection for improved learning ability Journal of Evolutionary Biology 19(4): 1265-1274
  • KOLSS M, KRAAIJEVELD AR, MERY F and KAWECKI TJ 2006 No trade-off between learning ability and parasitoid resistance in Drosophila melanogaster Journal of Evolutionary Biology 19(4): 1359-1363
  • MERY F 2006 Aging and its differential effects on consolidated memory forms in Drosophila Experimental Gerontology 42(1-2): 99-101
  • MERY F and KAWECKI TJ 2006 An operating cost of learning in Drosophila melanogaster Animal Behaviour 68(3): 589-598
  • MERY F and KAWECKI TJ 2005 A cost of long-term memory in Drosophila Science 308: 1148
  • MERY F and KAWECKI TJ 2004 The effect of learning on experimental evolution of resource preference in Drosophila melanogaster Evolution 58(4): 757-767
  • KAWECKI TJ and MERY F 2003 Evolutionary conservatism of geographic variation in host preference in Callosobruchus maculatus Ecological Entomology 28: 449-456
  • MERY F and KAWECKI TJ 2003 A fitness cost of learning ability in Drosophila melanogaster Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 270: 2465-2469
  • MERY, F. and JOLY, D. 2002 Multiple mating, sperm transfer and oviposition pattern in the giant sperm species, Drosophila bifurca. J. Evol. Biol. 15(1): 49-56
  • MERY F and KAWECKI TJ 2002 Experimental evolution of learning ability in fruit flies Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA 99: 14274-14279