Gros-Balthazard Muriel – Diade

Muriel

Gros-Balthazard

Specialities

Evolutionary biology

Function

Research Scientist

Team(s)

DYNADIV

Membership Institute

IRD

My research focuses on the history and evolution of oasis agrosystems, particularly those involving date palms. Using a variety of methods (population genomics, archaeobiology, ethnobotany), I study the diversity of date palms and their spatio-temporal dynamics under the influence of human societies, in order to identify levers for conservation, sustainable management, and strengthening the resilience of oases in arid environments.

Keywords

Date palm
Agrobiodiversity
Oasis
Population genomics
Archaeobiology

Publications

Robin-Soriano A., Vincent B., Maurice K., Battesti V., Boukcim H., Ducousso M., Gros-Balthazard M. 2025. Digging deeper into the impacts of different soil water systems on the date palm root architecture and associated fungal communities. Symbiosis. 95. 81-98.

Cid-Vian J., Pérez-Escobar O. A., Baker W. J., Bonhomme V., Ferrand S., Ivorra S., Kaczmarek T., Pagnoux C., Terral J.-F., Wales N., Purugganan M. D., Créer S., Papadopulos A. S. T., Bellot S., Gros-Balthazard M. 2025. Genomics and morphometry of herbarium specimens elucidate the origin of the Cape Verde date palm (Phoenix atlantica A.Chev.) and highlight its agronomic potential. Plants, People, Planet. 7. 1358–1371.

Besseiche M., Chambraud E., Dabrowski V., Brandstatt E., Sabot F., Bouchaud C., Gros-Balthazard M. 2025. DateBack, an evolving open-access repository of Phoenix archaeobotanical data supporting new perspectives on the history of date palm cultivation. Peer Community Journal. 5. e55.

Ivorra S., Tengberg M., Bonhomme V., Kaczmarek T., Pastor T., Terral J.-F., Gros-Balthazard M. 2024. Leveraging the Potential of Charred Archaeological Seeds for Reconstructing the History of Date Palm. Journal of Archaeological Science. 170. 106052.

Robin-Soriano A., Maurice K., Boivin S., Bourceret A., Laurent-Webb L., Youssef S., Nespoulous J., Boussiere I., Berder J., Damasio C., Vincent B., Boukcim H., Ducousso M., Gros-Balthazard M. 2024. Absence of Gigasporales and rarity of spores in a hot desert revealed by a multimethod approach. Mycorrhiza. 34. 251-270.

Fuks D., Schmidt F., Garcia‐Collado M., Besseiche M., Payne N., Bosi G., Bouchaud C., Castiglioni E., Dabrowski V., Frumin S., Fuller D., Hovsepyan R., Muthukumaran S., Pena-Chocarro L., Jorda G., Ros J., Rottoli M., Ryan P., Spengler R., Stevens C., Valamoti S., Weiss E., Alexander M., Gros-Balthazard M. 2024. Orphan crops of archaeology‐based crop history research. Plants, People, Planet. 7(3). 562-589.

Gros-Balthazard M., Battesti V., Flowers J., Ferrand S., Breil M., Ivorra S., Terral J.-F., Purugganan M. D., Wing R. A., Mohammed N., Bourgeois Y. 2023. What lies behind a fruit crop variety name? A case study of the barnī date palm from al-‘Ulā oasis, Saudi Arabia. Plants, People, Planet. 5(1). 82-97.

Kaczmarek T., Van Der Veen M., Ivorra S., Mattingly D., Terral J.-F., Gros-Balthazard M. 2023. Origins and evolution of oasis agriculture in the Sahara: Evidence from morphometric analyses of archaeological date palm seeds. The Holocene. 34(3). 353-365.

Flowers J. M., Hazzouri K. M., Lemansour A., Capote T., Gros-Balthazard M., Ferrand S., Lebrun M., Amiri K. M. A., Purugganan M. D. 2022. Patterns of volatile diversity yield insights into the genetics and biochemistry of the date palm fruit volatilome. Frontiers in Plant Science. 13.

Gros-Balthazard M., Flowers J. M., Hazzouri K. M., Ferrand S., Aberlenc F., Sallon S., Purugganan M. D. 2021. The genomes of ancient date palms germinated from 2,000 y old seeds. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). 118(19). e2025337118.

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.

Gros-Balthazard M., Battesti V., Ivorra S., Paradis L., Aberlenc F., Zango O., Zehdi-Azouzi S., Moussouni S., Naqvi S. A., Newton C., Terral J.-F. 2020. On the necessity of combining ethnobotany and genetics to assess agrobiodiversity and its evolution in crops: A case study on date palms (Phoenix dactylifera L.) in Siwa Oasis, Egypt. Evolutionary Applications. 13(8). 1818-1840.

Sallon S., Cherif E., Chabrillange N., Solowey E., Gros-Balthazard M., Ivorra S., Terral J.-F., Egli M., Aberlenc F. 2020. Origins and insights into the historic Judean date palm based on genetic analysis of germinated ancient seeds and morphometric studies. Science Advances. 6(6). eaax0384.

Flowers J., Hazzouri K., Gros-Balthazard M., Mo Z., Koutroumpa K., Perrakis A., Ferrand S., Khierallah H., Fuller D., Aberlenc F., Fournaraki C., Purugganan M. 2019. Cross-species hybridization and the origin of North African date palms. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). 116(5). 1651-1658.