Full professor Universidad Asutral de Chile (UACH), Valdivia, Chile

Associated Researcher of the International Research Laboratory (IRL) 3614 EBEA

Chilean Coordinator of the GDRI DEBMA (Diversity, Evolution and Biotechnology of Marine Algae), a collaborative network between research groups and University in France (4 members), 3 Universities from Brazil and 8 Universities from Chile. Since 2021, the follow up of the GDRI is now named IRN DABMA “Diversity and Biotechnology of Marine Algae".

Director of the Instituto de Ciencias Ambientales y Evolutivas, UACh. 2018- 2021.

Director of the International Relation Office, UACh since 2021

My research focuses on the evolution of the biological diversity, both at the community and population levels, and the process that are at the origin of these variations. In particular, I'm interested in determining what are the impacts of the environmental changes over the diversity (biological or genetic) of organisms located in the maritime coastal area. The aim is to understand how the global environmental changes, natural or linked to human activity, affect the survival of the populations.

I use principally molecular markers to study the population genetic diversity of seaweeds of important economical or ecological interest. Recently, part of my work was focused on unravelling the existence of cryptic sister species and studding their distribution, past population dynamics and possible events of hybridization and introgression in contact zones.

I am also interested in the evolution of life history traits and reproductive strategy in red algae and their genetic consequences. Various life cycles coexist among and within taxa of red algae and some species are characterised by complex lifecycle (haploid-diploid life cycle) that make them good models to test some hypotheses on the evolution of life cycles.

Direction and Evaluation of research, Teaching and Advising

National and international expert for the evaluation of research projects from Chile (FONDECYT CONICYT ANID and INACH), Canada (Mitacs), France – Chile (ECOS), Chile - USA (CONICYT-NSF), from Honk-Kong (China), USA – Isarel Binational Science Fundation (BSF).

Member of the Panel of Arbitrators of the “Biology 1” group, CONICYT since 2019.

Reviewer for more than 20 scientific journals (as J. Phycol., Algal Res., J. Appl. Phycol., MEPS, Mol. Ecol., Phycologia, Plos One, Frontiers, J. Biogeo., Polar Biol, Ecol. Evol.). Member of the editorial team of Scientific Reports and Cryptogamie Algologie.

Principal investigador or Coinvestigator of 11 research projects during the last 10 years (FONDECYT, FONDAP and  Núcleo Milenio all ANID – Chile, Instituto Antártico Chileno – Chile, ANR – France, GlobalSeaweedSTAR – UK)

Supervision or co-supervision of 17 undergraduate, 9 master and 4 PhD students.

Sponsor of 2 postdoctoral projects.

Lecturer in charge of genetic (undergrad and master) and evolution (phd) courses.

 

 

Publications

 

My work has generated 58 publications including 52 published in international journals of Q1 rank, 3 book chapters and 19 seminars or invited communications as speaker (Google scholar, Fev 2022, H=18, 1155 citations)

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=r3DnKwQAAAAJ&hl=en or  https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Marie-Laure-Guillemin

Selection of 5 publications:

  • Guillemin M-L., Faugeron S., Destombe C., Viard F., Correa J. A., Valero M. (2008). Domestication and distribution of genetic variation in wild and cultivated populations of the haploid diploid red alga gracilaria chilensis: how a traditional framing practice favour asexual reproduction and heterozygocity? Evolution, 62:1500-1519.
  • Guillemin M-L, Contreras-Porcia L, Ramírez ME, Macaya EC, Contador CB, Woods H, Wyatt C, Brodie J (2016). The bladed Bangiales (Rhodophyta) of the South Eastern Pacific: molecular species delimitation reveals extensive diversity. Mol. Phyl. Evol., 94:814-826.
  • Montecinos AE, Guillemin M-L, Couceiro L, Peters AF, Stoeckel S, Valero M (2017) Hybridization between two cryptic filamentous brown seaweeds along the shore: Analysing pre- and post-zygotic barriers in populations of individuals with varying ploidy levels. Mol. Ecol., 26:3497-3512.
  • Becheler R, Guillemin M-L, Stoeckel S, Mauger S, Saunier A, Brante A, Destombe C, Valero M (2020) After a catastrophe, a little bit of sex is better than nothing: Genetic consequences of a major earthquake on asexual and sexual populations. Evol. Appl., 13:2086-2100
  • Huanel O, Nelson WA, Robitzch V, Mauger S, Faugeron S, Preuss M, Zuccarello GC, Guillemin M-L. (2020) Comparative phylogeography of two Agarophyton species in the New Zealand archipelago. J. Phycol., 6:1575-1590.