Marco Todesco

Dr. Rer. Nat. (Ph.D. eq.) in Genetics, summa cum laude 2005-2009
Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology and Heberard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany
Advisors: Prof. Detlef Weigel and Prof. Gerd Jürgens

Laurea (M.Sc. equivalent) in Plant Biotechnology, summa cum laude 2000-2005
Universitá degli Studi di Padova, Italy
Advisors: Prof. Fiorella LoSchiavo and Prof. Serena Varotto

• Owens G.L., Todesco M., Huang K., Rieseberg L.H. (2023). Re-evaluating homoploid reticulate evolution in the annual sunflowers. Molecular Biology and Evolution, accepted for publication. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.14.512273v1.abstract
• 2. Huang K., Jahani M., Gouzy J,. Legendre A., Carrere S., Lázaro-Guevara J.m., Gonzáles Segovia E.G., Todesco M., Mayjonade B, Rodde N., Cauet S., Dufau I., Staton S.E., Pouilly N., Boniface M., Tapy C., Mangin B., Duhnen A. Gautier V., Poncet C., Donnadieu C., Hübner S., Burke J.M., Vautrin S., Bellec A., Owens G.L., Langlade N, Muños S., Rieseberg L.H. (2023). The genomics of linkage drag in sunflower. PNAS, accepted for publication.https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.06.07.495047v1.
• Bercovich N., Genze N., Todesco M., Owens G.L., Légaré J.-S., Huang K., Rieseberg L.H., Grimm D.G. (2022) HeliantHOME, a public and centralized database of phenotypic sunflower data. Scientific Data 9(1), 1-9 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-022-01842-0
• Huang K., Ostevik K.L., Elphinstone C., Todesco M., Bercovich N., Owens G.L., Rieseberg L.H. (2022) Mutation load in sunflower inversions is negatively correlated with inversion heterozygosity. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 10.1093/molbev/msac101.https://academic.oup.com/mbe/article/39/5/msac101/6583099.
• Hübner S., Sisou D., Mandel T., Todesco M., Matzrafi M., Eizenberg H. (2022) Wild sunflower goes viral: citizen science and comparative genomics allow tracking the origin and establishment of invasive sunflower in the Levant. Molecular Ecology, 31 (7), 2061-2072. 10.1111/mec.16380.https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/mec.16380.
• Todesco M.‡, Bercovich N., Kim A, Imerovski, I., Owens G.L., Dorado-Ruiz O., Holalu S.V., Madilao L.L., Jahani M., Légaré J.-S., Blackman B.K., Rieseberg L.H. (2022) Genetic basis and dual adaptive role of floral pigmentation in sunflowers. eLife, 11, e72072, doi:10.7554/eLife.72072.https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.26.449999v1.
• Featured in Global News Morning (TV), CNWK Radio, Radio Canada, The Daily Mail, National Post, The Weather Network, The Weather Channel, The Scientist, The Conversation, eLife Podcast, National Geographic Magazine.
• Owens G.L., Todesco M., Bercovich N., Légaré J.-S., Mitchell N., Whitney K.D., Rieseberg L.H. (2021) Standing variation rather than recent adaptive introgression likely underlies differentiation of the texanus subspecies of Helianthus annuus. Molecular Ecology, 10.1111/mec.16008. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/mec.16008.
• Todesco M.*, Owens G.L.*, Bercovich N.*, Légaré J.-S., Soudi S., Burge D.O., Huang K., Ostevik, K.L., Drummond, E.B.M., Imerovski, I., Lande K., Pascual-Robles M.A., Nanavati M., Jahani M., Cheung W., Staton S.E., Muños S., Nielsen R., Donovan L.A., Burke J.M., Yeaman S., Rieseberg L.H. (2020) Massive haplotypes underlie ecotypic differentiation in sunflowers. Nature, 584(7822), 602-607. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2467-6. Featured in Scientific American (Italian edition), Science Daily, EurekAlert, AlphaGalileo
• Hubner S., Bercovich N., Todesco M., Mandel J.R., Odenheiner J., Ziegler E., Lee J.S., Baute G.J., Owens G.L., Grassa C.J., Ebert D.P., Ostevik K.L., Moyers B., Yakimowski S., Masalia R.R., Calic I., Bowers J.E., Kane N.C., Swanevelder D.Z.H., Kubach T., Muños S., Langdale N.B., Burke J.M., Rieseberg L.H. (2019). Sunflower pan-genome analysis shows that hybridization altered gene content and disease resistance. Nature Plants, 5(1):54-62. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41477-018-0329-0.
• Zhu W., Zaidem M., Van de Weyer A.-L., Gutaker R.M., Chae E., Kim S.T., Bemm F., Li L., Todesco M., Schwab R., Unger F., Janis Beha M., Demar M., Weigel D. (2018). Modulation of ACD6 dependent hyperimmunity by natural alleles of an Arabidopsis thaliana NLR resistance gene. PLoS Genetics, 14(9):e1007628.https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1007628.
• Yang L., Wang H., Hou X., Zou Y., Han T., Niu M., Zhang J., Zhao Z., Todesco M., Balasubramanian S., Guo Y. (2018) Parallel evolution of common allelic variants confers flowering diversity in Capsella rubella. Plant Cell, 30(6): 1322-1336.https://academic.oup.com/plcell/article/30/6/1322/6099237.
• Owens, G.L., Todesco M., Drummond, E.B.M, Yeaman, S., Rieseberg, L.H. (2017) A novel post hoc method for detecting index switching finds no evidence for increased switching on the Illumina HiSeq X. Molecular Ecology Resources, 18(1):169-175. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1755-0998.12713.
• Todesco M.‡, Cronk Q. (2017) The genetic dimension of pest pressure in the tropical rainforest. Molecular Ecology, 10.1111/mec.14078. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mec.14078.
• Świadek M., Proost S., Sieh D., Yu J., Todesco M., Jorzig C., Rodriguez Cubillos A.E., Plötner B., Nikoloski Z., Chae E., Giavalisco P., Fischer A., Schröder F., Kim S.T., Weigel D., Laitinen R.A. (2017) Novel allelic variants in ACD6 cause hybrid necrosis in local collection of A. thaliana. New Phytologist, 26(9), 2407-2409. https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nph.14155.
• Todesco, M., Pascual, M.A., Owens, G.L., Ostevik, K.L., Moyers, B.T., Hübner S., Heredia, S.M., Hahn, M.A., Casey, C., Bock, D.G., Rieseberg, L.H. (2016) Hybridization and extinction. Evolutionary Applications, 9(7):892-908. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/eva.12367.
• Todesco M.‡, Felippes, F.F. (2015) Why benthamiana went viral. Trends in Plant Science, 21(1):4-6. https://www.cell.com/trends/plant-science/fulltext/S1360-1385(15)00304-0.
• Todesco M., Kim S.T., Chae E., Bomblies K., Zaidem M., Smith L.M., Weigel D., Laitinen R.A.E. (2014) Activation of the Arabidopsis thaliana immune system by combinations of common ACD6 alleles. PLoS Genetics, 10(7), e1004459. https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004459.
• Guo Y., Todesco M., Hagmann J., Das S., Weigel D. (2012) Independent FLC mutations as causes of flowering-time variation in Arabidopsis thaliana and Capsella rubella. Genetics, 192(2), 729-739. https://www.genetics.org/content/192/2/729.
• Todesco M., Balsubramanian S., Cao J., Ott F., Sureshkumar S. Schneeberger K., Meyer R.C., Altmann T., Weigel D. (2012) Natural variation in biogenesis of individual A. thaliana microRNA. Current Biology, 22(2), 166-170. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982211013819.
• Kawashima C.G., Matthewman C.A., Huang S. Lee B.R., Yoshimoto N., Koprivova A., Rubio-Somoza I., Todesco M., Rathjen T., Saito K., Takahashi H., Dalmay T., Kopriva S. (2011) Interplay of SLIM1 and miR395 in the regulation of sulfate assimilation in Arabidopsis. Plant Journal, 66(5), 863-876. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-313X.2011.04547.x.
• Wollmann H., Mica E., Long J., Todesco M., Weigel D. (2010) On reconciling the interactions between APETALA2, miR172 and AGAMOUS with the ABC model of lower development. Development, 137(21), 3633-3642. https://journals.biologists.com/dev/article/137/21/3633/44055/On-reconciling-the-interactions-between-APETALA2.
• Todesco M.*, Balasubramanian S.*, Hu T.T., Traw M.B., Horton M., Epple P., Kuhns C., Sureshkumar S., Schwartz C., Lanz C., Laitinen R.A.E., Huang Y., Chory J., Lipka V., Borevitz J.O., Dangl J.L., Bergelson J., Nordborg M., Weigel D. (2010) Natural allelic variation underlying a major fitness trade-off in Arabidopsis thaliana. Nature, 465(7298), 632-636. https://www.nature.com/articles/nature09083.Featured in The New York Times.
• Atwell S., Huang Y., Vilhjamsson B., Willems G., Horton M., Li Y., Meng D., Platt A., Tarone A., Jiang R., Hu T.T., Muliati W., Zhang X., Amer M.A., Baxter I., Brachi B., Chory J., Dean C., Debieu M., de Meaux J., Ecker J.R., Faure N., Kniskern J., Jones J.D.G., Michael T., Nemri A., Roux F., Salt D.E., Tang C., Todesco M., Traw M.B., Weigel D., Marjoram P., Borevitz J.O., Bergelson J., and Nordborg M. (2010) Genome-wide association study of 107 phenotypes in a common set of A. thaliana inbred lines. Nature, 465(7298), 627-631. https://www.nature.com/articles/nature08800.
• Todesco M.*, Rubio-Somoza I.*, Paz-Ares J., Weigel D. (2010) A collection of target mimics for comprehensive analysis of miRNA function in Arabidopsis thaliana. PLoS Genetics, 6(7), e1001031. https://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1001031.
• Sureshkumar S.*, Todesco M.*, Schneeberger K., Harilal R., Balasubramanian S., Weigel D. (2009). A genetic defect caused by a triple repeat expansion in Arabidopsis thaliana. Science, 323(5917), 1060-1063. https://www.science.org/lookup/doi/10.1126/science.1164014.
• De Michele R.*, Formentin E.*, Todesco M., Toppo S., Carimi F., Zottini M., Barizza E., Ferrarini A., Delledonne M., Fontana P., Lo Schiavo F. (2008) Transcriptome analysis of Medicago truncatula leaf senescence: similarities and differences in metabolic and transcriptional regulations as compared to Arabidopsis, nodule senescence, and nitric oxide signalling. New Phytologist, 181(3), 563-575. https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2008.02684.x.
• Franco-Zorrilla J.M., Valli A., Todesco M., Mateos I., Puga M. I., Rubio-Somoza I., Leyva A., Weigel D., Garcia J.A., Paz-Ares J. (2007). Target mimicry provides a new mechanism for regulation of microRNA activity. Nature Genetics, 39(8), 1033-1037. https://www.nature.com/articles/ng2079.

* equal contribution

‡ corresponding author

HFSP Long Term Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2013-2017

Postdoctoral Fellowship of the Max Planck Institute, 2009-2012

Wilhelm Pfeffer Award of the German Botanical Society, 2011

Otto Hahn Medal of the Max Planck Society, 2011

Prize of the Reinhold and Marie Teufel Foundation, 2010

Marie Curie Ph.D. Fellowship, 2005-2008