
SOLANO EMANUELA
Position: RICERCATORE
Type: T.D.
Phone: 06-90672524
Location: Montelibretti (RM)
Research Lines: Biodiversity, Conservation
Evolutionary biologist, currently a researcher at the Institute of Research on Terrestrial Ecosystems of the National Research Council (CNR-IRET). In 2008, she obtained a Ph.D. in Animal Biology, focusing on the molecular and chromosomal evolution of natural populations of commensal murids. Since 2008, her research activity has focused on an integrated multidisciplinary approach applied to the evolutionary biology of wild vertebrate and invertebrate species through cytogenetic techniques, molecular genetics, and the study of morphological variability. Between 2008 and 2010, during a postdoctoral fellowship in South Africa, she studied species relationships and genetic diversity among populations of various African rodents in relation to their geographic distribution.
Since 2011, at Sapienza University of Rome, in addition to ongoing collaboration on studies involving small mammals and reptiles, she has worked on monitoring, phylogeography, and conservation genetics of saproxylic insects of community interest, participating in the LIFE-MIPP project. Throughout her research career, she has organized and participated in trapping campaigns (in Italy and Africa, across different types of environments) and live capture of small mammals, as well as field monitoring of saproxylic insects (Italy, Switzerland, Spain) using various sampling techniques.
She is the author of 38 international scientific publications and one book chapter. Additionally, she contributed to the compilation of the Red List of Italian Saproxylic Beetles (2015) and the development of 12 management plans for protected areas under the EU Habitats Directive.
Her current research within the NBFC focuses on the conservation genomics of vertebrates of conservation concern, aimed at biodiversity conservation and management.
Projects
Production
- Colangelo P, Bonapace IM, Gramolini L, Solano E, Desiato E, Franchini P, Gentile L, Guadagnini R, Kleven O, Kindberg J, Kopatz A, Ciucci P (2025). Intraspecific epigenomics divergence in brown bears (Ursus arctos): insights from genome-wide DNA methylation patterns. Frontier in Ecologly and Evolution 12: 1504225. doi: 10.3389/fevo.2024.1504225
- Solano E, Castiglia C, Amori G, Gentile G, Bertolino S, Capizzi D, Kranebitter P, Ladurner E, Lapini L, Colangelo P. 2024. Phylogeography and population genetics of the endemic Italian water voles, Arvicola italicus. Zoologischer Anzeiger 313: 120-129.
- Gallozzi F, Attili L, Colangelo P, Giuliani D, Capizzi D, Sposimo P, Dell’Agnello F, Lorenzini R, Solano E, Castiglia R. 2024. A survey of VKORC1 missense mutations in eleven Italian islands reveals widespread rodenticide resistance in house mice. Science of The Total Environment, 953 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.176090.
- Di Russo E, Gippoliti S, Bezerra AMR, Aruta A, Solano E, Castiglia R. 2024. La collezione vertebratologica del Museo di Anatomia Comparata “Giovanni Battista Grassi” di RomaMuSEoLoGIA SCIENTIFICA MEMoRIE • N. 23/2024 • 84-92
- Castiglia R, Rotondi C, Aloise G, Amori G, Annesi F, Solano E, Mori E. 2023. A first attempt to track genetic signature of the colonization of the Mediterranean basin by the pigmy white-toothed shrew, Suncus etruscus (Eulipotyphla, Soricidae). Mammal Research, under review open access https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2807604/v1
- Sciandra C, Mori E, Solano E, Mazza G, Viviano A, Scarfò M., … & Castiglia R, 2022. Mice on the borders: genetic determinations of rat and house mouse species in Lampedusa and Pantelleria islands (Southern Italy). Biogeographia–The Journal of Integrative Biogeography, 37(1).
- Franchini P, Kautt A, Nater A, Antonini G, Castiglia R, Meyer A, Solano E, 2020. Reconstructing the Evolutionary History of Chromosomal Races on Islands: A Genome-Wide Analysis of Natural House Mouse Populations, Molecular Biology and Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaa118
- Mori E, Ferretti F, Lagrotteria A, La Greca L, Solano E, Fattorini N. 2020. Impact of wild boar rooting on small forest-dwelling rodents. Ecological Research;1–7.
- Cox K, McKeown N, Antonini G, Harvey D, Solano E, Van Breusgem A, Thomaes A. 2019. Phylogeographic structure and ecological niche modelling reveal signals of isolation and postglacial colonisation in the European stag beetle. PLOSONE 14(4): e0215860. (IF=766)
- Ribagorda M, Berríos S, Solano E, Ayarza E, Martín-Ruiz M, Gil-Fernández A, Parra MT, Viera A, Rufas J; Capanna E, Castiglia R Fernández-Donoso R, Page J. 2019. Meiotic behaviour of a complex hexavalent in heterozygous mice for Robertsonian translocations: insights for synapsis dynamics. Chromosoma 128(2): 149-163. (IF=530)
- Solano E, Hardersen S, Audisio P, Amorosi V, Senczuk G, Antonini G. 2018. Asymmetric hybridization in Cordulegaster (Odonata: Cordulegastridae): secondary postglacial contact and the possible role of mechanical constraints. Ecology and Evolution 8: 9657–9671.
Research fields
Molecular biology, population genetics, molecular phylogeny.
Genomics, metagenomics, epigenomics.
Cytogenetics, molecular cytogenetics, and cytotaxonomy.