Poncet Valérie – Diade

Valérie

Poncet

Function

Research Director

Team(s)

DYNADIV

Membership Institute

IRD

I study the role of evolutionary processes in the diversity and adaptations of native coffee trees in Africa. For many years, I have been conducting interdisciplinary research with partners in the Global South, particularly at the interface between population genetics, genomics, ecology, and biogeography. I also explore the impact of human activities on cultivated coffee trees, with the aim of optimizing the conservation and use of coffee’s genomic resources. In Uganda, I am studying the transition to a sustainable agroforestry coffee farming system.

Keywords

Diversity
Evolution
Domestication
Genomics
Coffea

Publications

Vi T., Le T. N., Cubry P., Phan V. H., Dinh T. T. O., Tran T. B. N., Nguyen V. T., Millet C. P., Kambale J.-L., Gba Kossia Manzan K., Musoli P., Sumirat U., Mahinga J. C., Stoffelen P., Zhang D., Marraccini P., Vigouroux Y., Khong G. N., Poncet V. 2025. Out of Africa: The genomic footprints of Vietnamese Robusta coffee. PLOS ONE. 20(5). e0324988.

Millet C. P., Delahaie B., Georget F., Allinne C., Solano-Sânchez W., Zhang D., Jeune W., Toniutti L., Poncet V. 2025. Guadeloupe and Haiti's coffee genetic resources reflect the crop's regional and global history. Plants, People, Planet. 7(1). 245-262.

Millet C. P., Allinne C., Vi T., Marraccini P., Verleysen L., Couderc M., Ruttink T., Zhang D., Sanchez W., Tranchant-Dubreuil C., Jeune W., Poncet V. 2024. Haitian coffee agroforestry systems harbor complex arabica variety mixtures and under-recognized genetic diversity. PLOS ONE. 19(4). e0299493.

Millet C. P., Delahaie B., Georget F., Allinne C., Solano-Sánchez W. Zhang D., Jeune W., Toniutti L., Poncet V. 2024. Guadeloupe and Haiti’s coffee genetic resources reflect the crop’s regional and global history. Plants, People, Planet. 7(1). 245-262.

Salojaervi J., Rambani A., Yu Z., Guyot R., Strickler S., Lepelley M., Wang C., Rajaraman S., Rastas P., Zheng C. F., Munoz D. S., Meidanis J., Paschoal A. R., Bawin Y., Krabbenhoft T. J., Wang Z. Q., Fleck S. J., Aussel R., Bellanger L., Charpagne A., Fournier C., Kassam M., Lefebvre G., Metairon S., Moine D., Rigoreau M., Stolte J., Hamon P., Couturon E., Tranchant-Dubreuil C., Mukherjee M., Lan T. Y., Engelhardt J., Stadler P., De Lemos S. M. C., Suzuki S. I., Sumirat U., Wai C. M., Dauchot N., Orozco-Arias S., Garavito A., Kiwuka C., Musoli P., Nalukenge A., Guichoux E., Reinout H., Smit M., Carretero-Paulet L., Guerreiro O., Braghini M. T., Padilha L., Sera G. H., Ruttink T., Henry R., Marraccini P., Van de Peer Y., Andrade A., Domingues D., Giuliano G., Mueller L., Pereira L. F., Plaisance S., Poncet V., Rombauts S., Sankoff D., Albert V. A., Crouzillat D., De Kochko A., Descombes P. 2024. The genome and population genomics of allopolyploid Coffea arabica reveal the diversification history of modern coffee cultivars. Nature Genetics. 56. 721-731.

Poncet V., Van Asten P., Millet C., Vaast P., Allinne C. 2024. Which diversification trajectories make coffee farming more sustainable?. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. 68. 101432.

Verleysen L., Bollen R., Kambale J. L., Ebele T., Katshela B. N., Depecker J., Poncet V., Assumani D.-M., Vadelook F., Stoffelen P., Honnay O., Ruttink T. 2023. Characterization of the genetic composition and establishment of a core collection for the INERA Robusta coffee (Coffea canephora) field genebank from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems. 7. 1239442.

Kiwuka C., Vos J., Douma J.-C., Musoli P., Mulumba J. W., Poncet V., Anten N. 2023. Intraspecific Variation in Growth Response to Drought Stress across Geographic Locations and Genetic Groups in Coffea Canephora. Ecology and Evolution. 13(1). e9715.

Vi T., Vigouroux Y., Cubry P., Marraccini P., Phan H.V., Khong G. N., Poncet V. 2023. Genome-wide admixture mapping identifies wild ancestry-of-origin segments in cultivated Robusta coffee. Genome Biology and Evolution (GBE). 15(5). evad065.

Tournebize R., Borner L., Manel S., Meynard C., Vigouroux Y., Crouzillat D., Fournier C., Kassam M., Descombes P., Tranchant-Dubreuil C., Parrinello H., Kiwuka C., Sumirat U., Legnate H., Kambale J., Sonké B., Mahinga J. C., Musoli P., Janssens S. B., Stoffelen P., De Kochko A., Poncet V. 2022. Ecological and genomic vulnerability to climate change across native populations of Robusta coffee (Coffea canephora). Global Change Biology. 28(13). 4124-4142.

De Aquino Oliveira S., Kiwuka C., Tournebize R., Gain C., Marraccini P., Mariac C., Bethune K., Couderc M., Cubry P., Andrade A., Lepelley M., Darracq O., Crouzillat D., Anten N., Musoli P., Vigouroux Y., De Kochko A., Manel S., François O., Poncet V. 2022. Adaptive potential of Coffea canephora from Uganda in response to climate change. Molecular Ecology. 31(6). 1800-1819.

Kiwuka C., Goudsmit E., Tournebize R., De Aquino Oliveira S., Douma J. C., Bellanger L., Crouzillat D., Stoffelen P., Sumirat U., Legnate H., Marraccini P., De Kochko A., Carvalho Andrade A., Wasswa Mulumba J., Musoli P., Anten N. P. R., Poncet V. 2021. Genetic diversity of native and cultivated Ugandan Robusta coffee (Coffea canephora Pierre ex A. Froehner): Climate influences, breeding potential and diversity conservation. PLOS ONE. 16(2). e0245965.

Merot‐L'anthoene V., Tournebize R., Darracq O., Rattina V., Lepelley M., Bellanger L., Tranchant-Dubreuil C., Coulee M., Pegard M., Metairon S., Fournier C., Stoffelen P., Janssens S., Kiwuka C., Musoli P., Sumirat U., Legnate H., Kambale J., Ferreira Da Costa Neto J., Revel C., De Kochko A., Descombes P., Crouzillat D., Poncet V. 2019. Development and evaluation of a genome-wide Coffee 8.5K SNP array and its application for high-density genetic mapping and for investigating the origin of Coffea arabica L.. Plant Biotechnology Journal. 17(7). 1418-1430.

Poncet V., Birnbaum P., Burtet-Sarramegna V., De Kochko A., Fogliani B., Gateble G., Isnard S., Jaffre T., Job D., Munoz F., Munzinger J., Scutt C.P., Tournebize R., Trueba S., Pillon Y. 2019. Amborella – Bearing witness to the past?. Annual Plant Reviews Online. 2(3). 1-41.

Tournebize R., Poncet V., Jakobsson M., Vigouroux Y., Manel S. 2019. McSwan: A joint site frequency spectrum method to detect and date selective sweeps across multiple population genomes. Molecular Ecology Resources. 19(1). 283-295.