Staff profile

I graduated with a BSc in Plant Sciences from the University of Manchester (2012) and subsequently did a PhD at the University of Munich (awarded in 2016), supervised by Prof. Susanne Renner, where I started to work on ant/plant symbioses as model systems in mutualism evolution. Continuing to work ant/plant symbioses (among other things), I did a short postdoc in Munich, then a Glasstone Research fellowship and Junior Research fellowship at Queen’s college, at Oxford, and subsequently started my group on a NERC fellowship in Durham, shortly in Sheffield and then back in Durham. I am also visiting researcher at Kunming Botanic Gardens (Chinese Academy of Sciences) and at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Recent and ongoing projects

• ‘BREAKDOWN: The regulation of breakdown of cooperation among specie’ ERC-funded (now EPSRC/UKRI) (2023-2028)
• ‘The drivers of major transitions in mutualistic dependence’. NERC (2019-2026)
• ‘Deciphering the 3-million year old ‘air conditioning’ mechanism in a Fijian obligate ant/plant farming mutualism’. National Geographics (2017-2021)
• ‘The evolution and domestication of multiple crop species in the watermelon genus Citrullus’. DFG (2018-2021)

Research Interests

Evolution and ecology of mutualisms
Why do mutualistic partnerships evolve, and what causes them to breakdown? My research uses field experiments, comparative genomics and transcriptomics, CT-scanning based 3D imaging and phylogenetic comparative methods to investigate how mutualisms evolve across the tree of life. We explore the formation, stabilization, and breakdown of mutualism in a species-rich clade of plants forming nutritional and defensive symbioses with ants as well as using large-scale trait datasets and phylogenies in multiple mutualisms across vascular plants. Recent insights include the finding that specialized parasites did not evolve from mutualistic ancestors (Proceedings B 2015), that generalist and facultative mutualisms break down more easily than obligate ones (PNAS 2017, Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst 2020); obligate mutualisms are more efficient (New Phytol 2019), offer greater rewards to their partners (New Phytol 2016), and their interaction-related traits are under strong stabilizing selection (PNAS 2017, TREE 2019).

Origins and evolution of agriculture in insects and humans
The gradual shift from hunting and gathering to plant cultivation and animal husbandry started globally at the boundary between the end of the Pleistocene and the beginning of the Holocene some 12,000-11,000 years ago, and is one of the most important transition in human history, allowing the development of our modern cultures. But agriculture has evolved much earlier in several lineages across the tree of life. ‘Primitive’ farming mutualisms are found in amoeba, fungus or deep-sea crab that cultivate bacteria, and damselfish, or sloth farming algae. The most sophisticated agricultures, sharing a number of aspects with our human agriculture includes fungiculture by ants, termites and ambrosia beetles. I discovered the first obligate agriculture of plants by ants (Nature Plants 2016). I am interested in the convergences between human and non-human agriculture and work specifically in two areas: the origin and domestication of the watermelon and related crops in the Cucurbitaceae (watermelon and more recently melon), and plant farming by ants, including generalist ant-gardens and obligate, highly specialised Fijian farming symbioses involving the ant Philidris nagasau that farm Squamellaria. Recently, I discovered that Fijian ant farmers have evolved strategies to optimize crop yield and mitigate tradeoffs between different crop requirements (PNAS 2020). We use systematics, ancient DNA analysis and phylogenomics to decipher the origin and domestication of crops in Citrullus, and field ecology, phylogenies, metabolomics, and transcriptomics and comparative genomics to dissect the evolution and functioning of ant/plant farming mutualism. Recent findings include the sequencing of a Linnean specimen that led to the correction of a century-long taxonomic error on which the origin of the watermelon was based (New Phytol 2015), the discovery of the closest relative and potential progenitor of the watermelon (PNAS 2021) and the sequencing of the oldest plant genome pointing to the cultivation of a watermelon relative for its seeds rather than its flesh, 6000 years ago in Libya (Mol Biol Evol 2022).

Evolution of plant functional morphology
Morphology is often uncorrelated to relatedness with related species sometimes looking entirely different and species far apart looking the same. While the genetic basis of morphological novelty is becoming increasingly well understood, the rules governing morphological change at a macroevolutionary level are not well characterised. My work has shown that shifts in mutualism strategies, such as specialisation or breakdown, are important drivers of morphology in interaction-related traits (PNAS 2017). My work on the evolution of morphology is threefold. First, I am interested in the evolution of plant morphology, and in particular plant architecture, notably in the context of crop domestication and (past) climate change. Second, I am interested to develop a coherent framework to understand morphological evolution at a macroevolutionary level. Third, I collaborate with physicists, engineers and mathematicians to understand the function of plant structure in a symbiotic context, notably in the context of temperature regulation in plant domatia housing symbiotic ants. This involves a mix of morphological and anatomical work, functional morphology, CT-scanning, architectural analysis, modelling, together with phylogenetic comparative methods. Finally, I am interested in the origin of complex composite traits, and use diverse models such as Nepenthes carnivorous plants to trace their origins.

• Ecology, Evolution & Environment

Journal Article

• Campbell, L.C.E., Kiers, E.T. & Chomicki, G. (2023). The evolution of plant cultivation by ants. Trends in Plant Science 28(3): 271-282.
• Pérez-Escobar, O.A., Zizka, A., Bermúdez, M.A., Meseguer, A.S., Condamine, F.L., Hoorn, C., Hooghiemstra, H., Pu, Y., Bogarín, D., Boschman, L.M., Pennington, R.T., Antonelli, A. & Chomicki, G. (2022). The Andes through time: evolution and distribution of Andean floras. Trends in Plant Science 27(4): 364-378.
• Meseguer, A.S., Michel, A., Fabre, P.-H., Pérez-Escobar, O.A., Chomicki, G., Riina, R., Antonelli, A., Antoine, P.-O., Delsuc, F. & Condamine, F.L. (2022). Diversification dynamics in the Neotropics through time, clades and biogeographic regions. eLife 11.
• Pérez-Escobar, O.A., Tusso, S., Przelomska, N.A.S., Wu, S., Ryan, P., Nesbitt, M., Silber, M.V., Preick, M., Zhangjun, F., Chomicki, G. & Renner, S.S. (2022). Genome Sequencing of up to 6,000-Year-Old Citrullus Seeds Reveals Use of a Bitter-Fleshed Species Prior to Watermelon Domestication. Molecular Biology and Evolution 39(8).
• Cai, X.-H., Shi, B.-B., Niu, Y., Ge, J., Chomicki, G. & Chen, G. (2022). Mystery revisited: Is nocturnal colored nectar a nonadaptive floral trait? Ecology 103(5).
• Chomicki, G., Beinart, R., Prada, C., Ritchie, K.B. & Weber, M.G. (2022). Editorial: Symbiotic Relationships as Shapers of Biodiversity. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 10.
• Chomicki, G. (2021). Bringing Raunkiær with plant architecture: unveiling the climatic drivers of architectural evolution in Euphorbia. New Phytologist 231(3): 910-912.
• Li, Y., Wang, B., Chomicki, G. & Chen, G. (2021). Do dispersers shape diaspore mass in vespicochory? Ecology 102(6).
• Pérez-Escobar, O.A., Bellot, S., Przelomska, N.A.S., Flowers, J.M., Nesbitt, M., Ryan, P., Gutaker, R.M., Gros-Balthazard, M., Wells, T., Kuhnhäuser, B.G., Schley, R., Bogarín, D., Dodsworth, S., Diaz, R., Lehmann, M., Petoe, P., Eiserhardt, W.L., Preick, M., Hofreiter, M., Hajdas, I., Purugganan, M., Antonelli, A., Gravendeel, B., Leitch, I.J., Jimenez, M.F.T., Papadopulos, A.S.T., Chomicki, G., Renner, S.S. & Baker, W.J. (2021). Molecular Clocks and Archeogenomics of a Late Period Egyptian Date Palm Leaf Reveal Introgression from Wild Relatives and Add Timestamps on the Domestication. Molecular Biology and Evolution 38(10): 4475-4492.
• Wolcott, K.A., Chomicki, G., Staedler, Y.M., Wasylikowa, K., Nesbitt, M., Schönenberger, J. & Renner, S.S. (2021). Three-dimensional X-ray-computed tomography of 3300- to 6000-year-old Citrullus seeds from Libya and Egypt compared to extant seeds throws doubts on species assignments. Plants People Planet 3(6): 694-702.
• Pu, Y., Naikatini, A., Pérez-Escobar, O.A., Silber, M., Renner, S.S. & Chomicki, G. (2021). Genome-wide transcriptome signatures of ant-farmed Squamellaria epiphytes reveal key functions in a unique symbiosis. Ecology and Evolution 11(22): 15882-15895.
• Renner, S.S., Wu, S., Pérez-Escobar, O.A., Silber, M.V., Fei, Z. & Chomicki, G. (2021). A chromosome-level genome of a Kordofan melon illuminates the origin of domesticated watermelons. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 118(23).
• Pérez-Escobar, O.A., Dodsworth, S., Bogarín, D., Bellot, S., Balbuena, J.A., Schley, R.J., Kikuchi, I.A., Morris, S.K., Epitawalage, N., Cowan, R., Maurin, O., Zuntini, A., Arias, T., Serna-Sánchez, A., Gravendeel, B., Torres Jimenez, M.F., Nargar, K., Chomicki, G., Chase, M.W., Leitch, I.J., Forest, F. & Baker, W.J. (2021). Hundreds of nuclear and plastid loci yield novel insights into orchid relationships. American Journal of Botany 108(7): 1166-1180.
• Kuhnhäuser, B.G., Bellot, S., Couvreur, T.L.P., Dransfield, J., Henderson, A., Schley, R., Chomicki, G., Eiserhardt, W.L., Hiscock, S.J. & Baker, W.J. (2021). A robust phylogenomic framework for the calamoid palms. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 157.
• Chomicki, G., Schaefer, H. & Renner, S.S. (2020). Origin and domestication of Cucurbitaceae crops: insights from phylogenies, genomics and archaeology. New Phytologist 226(5): 1240-1255.
• Fan, X.-L., Chomicki, G., Hao, K., Liu, Q., Xiong, Y.-Z., Renner, S.S., Gao, J.-Y. & Huang, S.-Q. (2020). Transitions between the terrestrial and epiphytic habit drove the evolution of seed-aerodynamic traits in orchids. American Naturalist 195(2): 275-283.
• Chen, G., Zhang, Z., Chomicki, G. & Sun, W. (2020). The flip side of the coin: ecological function of the bee-hawking Asian hornet. Integrative Zoology 15(2): 156-159.
• Chomicki, G., Thorogood, C.J., Naikatini, A. & Renner, S.S. (2019). Squamellaria: Plants domesticated by ants. Plants People Planet 1(4): 302-305.