Xavier
Picó
I am interested in understanding the processes that govern the performance, dynamics and adaptive variation of plant populations. To that end, I mostly work with natural populations of the annual plant Arabidopsis thaliana across the SW Mediterranean Basin, which is the area of the species' distribution range harboring the greatest genomic diversity. Besides, A. thaliana is the only plant model system that also allows the thorough study of the genetic basis of ecologically and evolutionarily important life-cycle traits, opening the door to the mechanistic understanding of trait variation in nature. My multidisciplinary research integrates data from field studies, common garden experiments, and whole-genome sequencing through long-term national and international research collaborations.