research interests
I’m interested in understanding the molecular basis of adaptation in naturally evolving species. this includes:
- Identifying genes underlying adaptation.
- Understanding how an adaptive allele contributes to phenotypes and overall fitness.
- Tracing the fate of such adaptive alleles in natural populations.
My current research focuses on combining natural examples of adaptation and artificial selection in house mouse (Mus musculus domesticus) to characterise and understand the adaptive process.
I combine a number of approaches to tackle the research problem comprehensively, ranging from quantitative and population genetics, molecular ecology, developmental biology, to bioinformatics.
My PhD research focus was in evolutionary genetics and genomics in threespine sticklebacks.
"Lefty" - a transgenic stickleback with rescued pelvic phenotype
an (extreme) example of association between stickleback chromosomes
Dissertation title: The genomic basis of parallel evolution in three-spined sticklebacks
Research topics:
- Identification of cis-regulatory mutations causing pelvic reduction at Pitx1
- Detecting signatures of selection at QTLs underlying evolutionary change using high density SNP genotyping arrays
- Genome-wide mapping of repeated adaptation using Illumina sequencing
- Characterisation of structural variations and inversion polymorphisms
- [as contributing author:] A role for a neo-sex chromosome in stickleback speciation