CAREER RECORD & QUALIFICATION

New position (starting Aug 1 2009)

Assistant Professor at Institute of Oceanography, National Taiwan University, Taiwan.

Feb 2006 - present
Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Saint Louis University, USA (with Prof. Richard Mayden).

Oct 2003 - Dec 2005
Postdoctoral Research Fellow at INRA, Bordeaux, France (with Dr. Marie-France Corio-Costet).

Nov 2002 - May 2003
Postdoctoral Research Fellow at University of Konstanz, Germany (with Prof. Axel Meyer).

Feb 2001 - Oct 2002
Postdoctoral Research Fellow at University of Nebraska, USA (with Dr. Guillermo Ortí).


Feb 2002 & Feb 2006
Qualified as “maîtres de conférences” (assistant professor) in section 68 “Biologie des organismes” in France.

 

EDUCATION

2001. Ph.D. Biological Sciences- Biodiversity: Genetics, History and Mechanisms of Evolution at University of Paris 6 (Université Pierre et Marie Curie), France.

1997. DEA (equivalent to master degree in USA system):Biodiversity: Genetics, History and Mechanisms of Evolution at University of Paris 6 (Université Pierre et Marie Curie), France.

1993. Bachelor of Science at Department of Zoology, Fishery Division, National Taiwan University, Taiwan.


RESEARCH PROJECT

Currently, I am working on the Cypriniformes tree of life (CToL) project [1,2; 4-9] with a particular emphasis on phylogenomics. I keep also my long-term research activity in percomorph systematics [11].


RESEARCH INTERESTS & ACCOMPLISHMENTS

My work and general research interests concern the application of molecular and computational tools within a phylogenetic framework to interpret organismal diversity (in fish particularly) and to understand mechanisms of evolution.

During my doctorate study (at Laboratoire d’Ichtyologie générale et appliquée and Service commun de systématique moléculaire, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (MNHN) à Paris under the supervision of Dr. Guillaume Lecointre), my research was focused on a systematics project of acanthomorph fishes, the most diverse group of vertebrates. My work was the first attempt to summarize multi-locus data for an extensive taxonomic sampling of acanthomorphs [16]. I also worked on small-scale phylogeny of higher notothenioids (Antarctic acanthomorphs, composed of the families Harpagiferidae, Artedidraconidae, Bathydraconidae, and Channichthyidae) based on two mitochondrial genes [17-18]. The comparison with phylogeography and ecology of included channichthyid taxa allowed proposing putative speciation models and correlations with paleo-events of Antarctic Ocean [18].

I embarked on my first postdoctoral training at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to further horn my skills on molecular techniques and molecular systematics of fishes [15]. Later, I had a short stint as a postdoctoral fellow at University of Konstanz in Germany where I worked on projects of EVODEVO (evolutionary development) in cichlids and phylogenomic analysis of fish model systems [13]. Besides, a collaboration work (with Dr. Jing Luo) on molecular systematics and biogeography of Oriental Voles (Genus Eothenomys, Muridae, Mammalia) was accomplished [14].

During the past few years, I also expand my extensive experience in Molecular Systematics studies to the investigations of micro-evolution and Molecular Ecology using grapevine downy mildew (Plasmopara viticola) as model system [3,10,12]. This research activity was conducted at French National Institute for Agronomic research (INRA, Bordeaux).


PUBLICATIONS

 2009 

1. CHEN, W-J. & MAYDEN, R.L. Molecular systematics of the Cyprinoidea (Teleostei: Cypriniformes), the world's largest clade of freshwater fishes: further evidence from six nuclear genes. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 52(2): 544-549 (Link) [view PDF].

2. MAYDEN, R.L. CHEN, W-J., BART, H.L., DOOSEY, M.H., SIMONS, A.M., et al. (2009) Reconstructing the phylogenetic relationships of the Earth's most diverse clade of freshwater fishes - order Cypriniformes (Actinopterygii: Ostariophysi): a case study using multiple nuclear loci and the mitochondrial genome. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 51(3): 500-514 (Link) [view PDF] (download supp. material).

 2008

3. CORIO-COSTET, M-F., MARTINEZ, F., DELMOTTE, F.,  DOUENCE, L., RICHART-CERVERA, S. & CHEN, W-J. (2008) Resistance of Plasmopara viticola to QoIs fungicides: Origin and Diversity. In: Modern fungicides and antifungal compounds V. Dehne, H.W., Deising, H.B., Gisi, U., Kuck, K.H., Russell, P.E. & Lyr, H. (eds). DPG, Braunschweig, Germany, pp. 107-112 .

4. CHEN, W-J., MIYA, M., SAITOH, K. & MAYDEN, R.L. (2008) Phylogenetic utility of two existing and four novel nuclear gene loci in reconstructing Tree of Life of ray-finned fishes: The order Cypriniformes (Ostariophysi) as a case study. Gene 423(2): 125-134 (Link) [view PDF] (download supp. data).

5. SAITOH, K. & CHEN, W-J. (2008) Reducing cloning artifacts for recovery of allelic sequences by T7 endonuclease I cleavage and single re-extension of PCR products - A benchmark. Gene 423(1): 92-95 (Link) [view PDF].

6. MAYDEN, R.L., TANG, K.L., WOOD, R.M., CHEN, W-J., et al. (2008) Inferring the Tree of Life of the order Cypriniformes, the earth’s most diverse clade of freshwater fishes: implications of varied taxon and character sampling. Journal of Systematics and Evolution 46(3): 424–438 (Link) [view PDF].

7. CONWAY, K. W., CHEN, W-J. & MAYDEN, R. L. (2008) The 'Celestial Pearl danio' is a miniature Danio (s.s) (Ostariophysi: Cyprinidae): evidence from morphology and molecules. Zootaxa 1686: 1-28 [view PDF] (media).

8. HE, S., GU, X., MAYDEN, R. L., CHEN, W-J., CONWAY, K. W. & CHEN, Y. (2008) Phylogenetic position of the enigmatic genus Psilorhynchus (Ostariophysi: Cypriniformes): evidence from the mitochondrial genome. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 47(1): 419-425 (Link) [view PDF].

9. HE, S., MAYDEN, R. L., WANG, X., WANG, W., TANG, K. L., CHEN, W-J. & CHEN, Y. (2008) Molecular phylogenetics of the family Cyprinidae (Actinopterygii: Cypriniformes) as evidenced by sequence variation in the first intron of S7 ribosomal protein-coding gene: further evidence from a nuclear gene of the systematic chaos in the family. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 46(3): 818-829 (Link) [view PDF].

 2007

10. CHEN, W-J., DELMOTTE, F., RICHARD-CERVERA, S., DOUENCE, L., GREIF, C. & CORIO-COSTET, M-F. (2007) At least two origins of fungicide resistance in grapevine downy mildew populations. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 73: 5162-5172 (Link) [view PDF].

11. CHEN, W-J., RUIZ-CARUS, R. & ORTÍ, G. (2007) Relationships among four genera of mojarras (Teleostei: Perciformes: Gerreidae) from the western Atlantic and their tentative placement among percomorph fishes. Jornal of Fish Biology 70 (supplement B): 202-218 (Link) [view PDF].

 2006

12. DELMOTTE, F., CHEN, W-J., RICHARD-CERVERA, S., GREIF, C. PAPURA, D., GIRESSE, X., MONDOR-GENSON, G. & CORIO-COSTET, M-F. (2006) Microsatellite DNA markers for Plasmopara viticola, the causal agent of downy mildew of grapes. Molecular Ecology Notes 6(2):379-381 (Link) [view PDF].

 Before 2005

13. CHEN, W-J., ORTÍ, G. & MEYER, A. (2004) Novel evolutionary relationships among four fish model systems. Trends in Genetics 20(9): 424-431 (Link) [view PDF].

14. LUO, J., YANG, D., SUZUKI, H., WANG, Y., CHEN, W-J., CAMPBELL, K. L. & ZHANG, Y. (2004) Molecular Phylogeny and Biogeography of Oriental Voles: Genus Eothenomys (Muridae, Mammalia). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 33(2): 349-362 (Link) [view PDF].

15. LÓPEZ, J. A., CHEN, W-J. & ORTÍ, G. (2004) Esociform phylogeny. Copeia 2004(3): 449-464 (Link) [view PDF].

16. CHEN, W-J., BONILLO, C. & LECOINTRE, G. (2003) Repeatability of clades as a criterion of reliability: a case study for molecular phylogeny of acanthomorph (teleostei) with larger number of taxa. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 26(2): 262-288 (Link) [view PDF].

17. DEROME, N., CHEN, W-J., DETTAÏ, A., BONILLO, C. & LECOINTRE, G. (2002) Phylogeny of antarctic dragon fishes (bathydraconidae, notothenioidei, teleostei) and related families based on their anatomy and two mitochondrial genes. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution24(1): 139-152 (Link) [view PDF].

18. CHEN, W-J., BONILLO, C. & LECOINTRE, G. (1998) Phylogeny of the Channichthyidae (Notothenioidei, Teleostei) based on two mitochondrial genes. In: di Prisco, G., Pisano, E. and Clarke, A. (eds.). Fishes of Antarctica. A biological Overview. Springer Verlag. pp. 287-298 [view PDF].


N.B. Reprints (PDF) of my published papers are provided as exchange of information for personal use only. All copyrights remain with the original publishers of the articles.

 

EXPERIENCE IN MANUSCRIPT REFEREE FOR

  • Biology Letter (2009).
  • Hydrobiologia (2009).
  • Ichthyological Research (2006).
  • Journal of Biogeography (2006).
  • Journal of Fish Biology (2004).
  • Molecular Biology and Evolution (2003).