Benoît Perez-Lamarque, PhD

I am an Assistant Professor of Biology at the Université de Toulouse, where I study the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of species interactions, with a particular focus on host-associated microbiota and mycorrhizal symbioses.

Curriculum vitae

2024-...: Assistant Professor (Maître de conférences), Biology & Geosciences Department, Centre de Recherche sur la Biodiversité et l'Environnement (CRBE), Université de Toulouse, France.
2022-2024: ATER, Biology Department, ENS, Université PSL, Paris.
2021-2022: Post-Doc, IBENS, Paris.
2018-2021: Ph.D. student co-advised by Hélène Morlon (ENS), Marc-André Selosse, and Florent Martos (MNHN), Paris (PhD manuscript).
2018: Short-term scholar at Harvard University (Naomi Pierce lab).
2016: Research internship at UC Berkeley (Rosemary Gillespie lab).
2015-2017: Master degree in Evolutionary modeling at ENS & Sorbonne Université, Paris.
2014-2015: Bachelor degree in Biology at ENS, Paris.
2012-2014: Classe préparatoire BCPST, Lycée Fermat, Toulouse.

Research

Species interactions are a fundamental component of biodiversity. My research explores how interactions between species assemble, persist, and change over time, combining mathematical modelling with empirical data to identify the processes driving these ecological and evolutionary dynamics.
Macroevolution: I combine phylogenetic comparative methods, cophylogenetic approaches, and ecological network analyses to investigate how species interactions change over deep time, and how species diversification shapes the structure of interaction networks - and vice versa.
Community ecology: Using ecological network tools and community ecology models, I investigate how species interactions contribute to the spatial and temporal dynamics of biodiversity under global change, from local communities to broader biogeographic scales.
Host-microbiota interactions: I use metabarcoding to characterize host-microbiota interactions, with a particular focus on plant-fungal mycorrhizal symbioses, to investigate how these interactions assemble and evolve across ecological and evolutionary timescales.

Preprints

1. Farminhão J, Collobert G, Perez-Lamarque B, Verlynde S, Ramandimbisoa B, Kaymak E, Azandi L, Droissart V, Simo-Droissart M, Johnson S, Martos F, Stévart T (2024), Orchids, hawkmoths and Darwin revisited: How adaptation to pollination by hawk-moths spurred the speciation of Old and New World angraecoids, bioRxiv.

Publications

25. Perez-Lamarque B, Andreoletti J, Morillon B, Pion-Piola O, Lambert A, Morlon H (2026), Structural stability of mutualistic networks over evolutionary timescales, Nature Ecology & Evolution, (in press).
24. Bodin F, Morlon H, Perez-Lamarque B (2026), Questioning the evidence for host-symbiont codiversification in mycorrhizal symbioses, Molecular Biology and Evolution, 43: 9, msag207.
23. Kosecka M, Bourceret A, Perez-Lamarque B, Guzow-Krzemińska B, Kukwa M, Flakus A, Rodriguez-Flakus P, Selosse MA (2026), Factors shaping the lichen photobiome and mycobiome in a tropical lichen community, FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 102: 9, fiag094.
22. Junk I*, Hans J*, Perez-Lamarque B*, Weber S, Stothut M, Gold E, Schubert C, Schumacher A, Schmitt N, Melcher A, Paulus M, Klein R, Teubner D, Koschorreck J, Kennedy S, Morlon H, Krehenwinkel H (2025), Archived natural DNA samplers reveal four decades of biodiversity change across the tree of life, Nature Ecology & Evolution, 9: 1873-1884, * equal contribution.
21. Perez-Lamarque B, Morlon H (2024), Distinguishing cophylogenetic signal from phylogenetic congruence clarifies the interplay between evolutionary history and species interactions, Systematic Biology, 73: 3.
20. Laurent-Webb L, Maurice K, Perez-Lamarque B, Bourceret A, Ducousso M, Selosse MA (2024), Seed or soil: tracing back the plant mycobiota primary sources, Environmental Microbiology Reports, 16(3): e13301.
19. Pichon B, Le Goff R, Morlon H, Perez-Lamarque B (2024), Telling mutualistic and antagonistic ecological networks apart by learning their multiscale structure, Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 15: 1113-1128.
18. Morlon H, Andréoletti J, Barido-Sottani J, Lambert S, Perez-Lamarque B, Quintero I, Senderov V, Veron P (2024), Phylogenetic insights into diversification, Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, 55: 1-21 .
17. Maestri R*, Perez-Lamarque B*, Zhukova A, Morlon H (2024), The recent evolutionary origin and localized geographic distribution of extant mammalian coronaviruses, eLife, 13: RP91745, * equal contribution.
16. Perez-Lamarque B, Sommeria-Klein G, Duret L, Morlon H (2023), Phylogenetic comparative approach reveals evolutionary conservatism, ancestral composition, and integration of vertebrate gut microbiota, Molecular Biology and Evolution, 40: 7, msad144.
15. Collobert G, Perez-Lamarque B, Dubuisson JY, Martos F (2023), Gains and losses of the epiphytic lifestyle in epidendroid orchids: review and new analyses with succulence traits, Annals of Botany, mcad145.
14. Robira B, Perez-Lamarque B (2023), Primate sympatry shapes the evolution of their brain architecture, Peer Community Journal, 3: e37.
13. Overcast I, Achaz G, Aguilée R, Andújar C, Arribas P, Creedy TJ, Economo EP, Etienne RS, Gillespie R, Jacquet C, Jay F, Kennedy S, Krehenwinkel H, Lambert A, Meramveliotakis E, Noguerales V, Perez-Lamarque B, Roderick G, Rogers H, Ruffley M, Sanmartin I, Vogler AP, Papadopoulou A, Emerson BC, Morlon H (2023), Towards a genetic theory of island biogeography: Inferring processes from multidimensional community-scale data, Global Ecology and Biogeography, 32, 4-23.
12. Perez-Lamarque B, Laurent-Webb L, Bourceret A, Maillet L, Bik F, Cartier D, Labolle F, Holveck P, Epp D, Selosse MA (2023), Fungal microbiomes associated with Lycopodiaceae during ecological succession, Environmental Microbiology Reports, 15(2): 109-118.
11. Perez-Lamarque B, Morlon H (2022), Comparing different computational approaches for detecting long-term vertical transmission in host-associated microbiota, Molecular Ecology, 32, 6671-6685.
10. Perez-Lamarque B, Maliet O, Pichon B, Selosse MA, Martos F, Morlon H (2022), Do closely related species interact with similar partners? Testing for phylogenetic signal in bipartite interaction networks, Peer Community Journal, 2: e59.
9. Petrolli R, Zinger L, Perez-Lamarque B, Collobert G, Griveau C, Pailler T, Selosse MA, Martos F (2022), Spatial turnover of fungi and partner choice shape mycorrhizal networks in epiphytic orchids, Journal of Ecology, 110: 2568-2584.
8. Perez-Lamarque B, Petrolli R, Strullu-Derrien C, Strasberg D, Morlon H, Selosse MA, Martos F (2022), Structure and specialization of mycorrhizal networks in phylogenetically diverse tropical communities, Environmental Microbiome, 17: 38.
7. Perez-Lamarque B, Öpik M, Maliet O, Afonso Silva AC, Selosse MA, Martos F, Morlon H (2022), Analysing diversification dynamics using barcoding data: The case of an obligate mycorrhizal symbiont, Molecular Ecology, 31: 3496-512.
6. Perez-Lamarque B, Krehenwinkel H, Gillespie R, Morlon H (2022), Limited evidence for microbial transmission in the phylosymbiosis between Hawaiian spiders and their microbiota, mSystems, 7: e01104-21.
5. Armstrong E*, Perez-Lamarque B*, Bi K, Chen C, Becking LE, Lim JY, Linderoth T, Krehenwinkel H, Gillespie R (2021), A holobiont view of island biogeography: unraveling patterns driving the nascent diversification of a Hawaiian spider and its microbial associates, Molecular Ecology, 31: 1299-1316, * equal contribution.
See the associated interview by the Molecular Ecology Blog.
4. Selosse MA, Petrolli R, Mujica MI, Laurent L, Perez-Lamarque B, Figura T, Bourceret A, Jacquemyn H, Li T, Gao J, Minasiewicz J, Martos F (2021), The Waiting Room Hypothesis revisited by orchids : Were orchid mycorrhizal fungi recruited among root endophytes?, Annals of Botany, 129: 259-270.
3. Dorrell RG, Villain A, Perez-Lamarque B, Audren de Kerdrel G, McCallum G, Watson A, ait-Mohamed O, Alberti A, Corre E, Frischkorn KR, Pierella Karlusich JJ, Pelletier E, Morlon H, Bowler C, Blanc G (2021), Phylogenomic fingerprinting of tempo and functions of horizontal gene transfer within ochrophytes, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118: e2009974118.
2. Perez-Lamarque B, Selosse MA, Öpik M, Morlon H, Martos F (2020), Cheating in the arbuscular mycorrhizal mutualism: a network and phylogenetic analysis, New Phytologist, 226: 1822-1835.
Watch the associated interview ("What we are reading") by the South American Mycorrhizal Research Network.
1. Perez-Lamarque B, Morlon H (2019), Characterizing symbiont inheritance during host-microbiota evolution: Application to the great apes gut microbiota, Molecular Ecology Resources, 19: 1659-1671.

Tutorials

HOME tutorial - detecting vertical transmission in microbiota (GitHub).
Guidelines to measure phylogenetic signals in interaction networks (GitHub).
ABDOMEN - A Brownian moDel Of Microbiota EvolutioN (GitHub).
ELEFANT - Evolution of LatEnt traits for Ancestral Network reconsTruction (GitHub).
Metabarcoding pipelines (GitHub).

Teaching

2024-...: Lectures in Botany, Plant ecology, and Phylogenetics (L1-L3, and M1, Université de Toulouse).
2024-...: Practical courses and fieldwork in Botany (L1-L3, Université de Toulouse).
2022-26: Lectures in Community ecology (L3 ENS).
2022-24: Introduction to Botany (Embryophytes, floral morphology, monocots, dicots).
2022-24: Introduction to Ecology and Biodiversity sciences for non-biologists (PSL week).
2020-24: Field courses in Experimental ecology (L3, M1).
2019-23: Introduction to Mathematical Modeling and Statistics in Biology for L3 students at ENS (documents, poly in French).
2018-20: Training in Mathematics and Statistics for IMALIS Master students at ENS (documents).

Outreach (in French)

"On a souvent besoin d'un plus petit que soi", Savoirs pour tous, ENS Paris (2018).
"Ma thèse en 180 secondes", Finale Université PSL, Paris (2020).
"Modéliser l'évolution des interactions hôte-microorganisme", La Recherche, trimestriel 569 (2022).
"La biodiversité microbienne à l’épreuve de l’action humaine", PlanetVie, Editeur : Combemorel P (2023).
"Chemins évolutifs de la mycohétérotrophie", Perez-Lamarque B, Selosse MA et Roy M (2025), L'Orchidophile, numéro 245: 117-123.

Contact

Feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss potential research projects or opportunities to join our team:

benoit.perez-lamarque@utoulouse.fr

Bâtiment 4R1, 118 Route de Narbonne, 31000 Toulouse, France

Follow @bperezlamarque on Bluesky
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