Fatima SmagulovaInstitut de recherche en santé, environnement et travail (IRSET) - Inserm / Université de Rennes 1 / EHESP
Mes recherches
My research is largely devoted to understanding the impacts of environmental factors on germ cell development with the focus on epigenetic effects. After a thesis (2000) I realized postdoc in France in Montpellier in retrovirology team (CNRS 2002-2005) directed by Dr. Mougel. To acquire new experience in developmental field, I realized the postdoc study in Dartmouth Medical school, USA (2005-2007) and was directed by Dr. Tevosian. To improve my knowledge in reproduction and to acquire new expertise in the genome-wide studies and in homologous recombination, I performed a postdoc stage at Uniformed service University of the Health Sciences (2008-20012), supervisor Dr. Petukhova. I initiated my team in 2012 as a Chair D’Excellence funded by European University of Brittany. Inserm recruited me as a first class researcher in 2014. I obtained the ATIP-Avenir grant in 2014. I created the team "Meiosis, Epigenetic and Reproduction” at the Institute of the Occupational and Environmental Science, INSERM, due to ATIP-Avenir funding. At present, I continue lead the group.
Mon projet ATIP-Avenir
Effect of pesticides on epigenetic control of the meiotic developmental process in mammals
In germ cell development, the epigenetic mechanisms are essential for proper formation of the healthy gametes. The changes in epigenetic histone marks could lead to transgenerational effects. We showed that gestational exposure to environmental toxicants leads to decrease in spermatozoa numbers in the third generation male mice after exposure. We found that a large number of meiotic defects are present, including synapsing failure, telomere end-to-end connections and DNA repair delays. The reproductive defects were associated with changes in the expressions of hundreds genes and in the global histone H3K4me3 occupancy. We found that epigenetic changes of ZFP57 and RNF2 target genes were enriched in both our studies suggesting that these factors are major candidates responsible for transgenerational epigenetic inheritance. Actually, I am leader of “Meiosis, epigenetic, and reproduction” team and I continue to work on epigenetic mechanisms perturbed by pollutants. I am coordinator of the integrative project funded by PNRPE and I am involved in international European project HBM4EU, where I am doing research in a finding a new biomarkers of exposure for human health monitoring.