Topic: Transposable Elements (TEs) as witnesses and actors of Coffea canephora‘s resilience potential
Dates: 1 November 2025 – 31 October 2028
CBGP supervisor: C. Meynard

This PhD project aims to elucidate the evolutionary and adaptive potential of the Robusta coffee plant, Coffea canephora, by integrating species distribution models (SDMs), demographic inferences and selection analyses to assess the role of transposable elements (TEs) in environmental adaptation. TEs play a key role in genome evolution and gene regulation, but their contribution to plant adaptation remains poorly understood. By combining environmental and genomic data, this study will examine how past and present climatic variations have influenced TE activity and the genetic diversity of wild and cultivated populations of C. canephora.

This project follows on from a long-standing collaboration with the UMR DIADE on the adaptation of coffee plants to climate change. The PhD will be co-supervised at the CBGP by Christine Meynard, and at DIADE by Yann Bourgeois, Rémi Tournebize and Valérie Poncet. Jasmine will spend part of her time at both research units. Christine Meynard will oversee the macroecology and range modelling aspects of the research, whilst Jasmine will benefit from discussions with colleagues at the CBGP who are more experienced in genomics and population genetics.