
This is a word cloud
of terms in the abstracts of all articles published by our group during 1990 –
2014; it captures the gist of our research interests during that time!
My major more current
research interests are evolutionary genetics, in particular the
wide-ranging ramifications of genetic conflict, and evolutionary ecology, broadly defined to include the interactions
between behaviour, morphology, physiology and
genetics on one hand and the environment on the other. Several current research
projects in my laboratory focus, in one way or another, on understanding the
causes and consequences of interactions between the sexes and the genetic /
evolutionary consequences of having two sexes. We currently follow three main
themes:

- Every animal cell contains two types of
genetic material: genes in the nucleus and genes in the mitochondria. The
mitochondrial genome is small but encodes for products that are vital for the
metabolic performance of the cell: the energy producing enzymatic machinery of
the mitochondria is built collectively by products of the mitochondrial and
nuclear genome. MtDNA has long been considered selectively neutral. However,
recent research in our laboratory and many others have demonstrated that mtDNA
variation across and within populations interacts with nuclear genes in
affecting important phenotypic traits such as metabolic phenotypes, development
rate and even fitness. Our research ultimately aims to understand the role of
mtDNA in evolutionary adaptation. Moreover, mtDNA does not follow the same
evolutionary “rules” as does nDNA, chiefly because it
is haploid, does not recombine and is maternally inherited. There is therefore
generally no selection on mtDNA in males and we are currently exploring the
possibility that sexual conflict over optimal life histories have important
consequences for mitonuclear coevolution.

- Most of our research revolves, directly or
indirectly, around the causes and consequences of conflicts of interest between
the sexes. Such conflicts can arise because the direction of selection on an
allele at a given locus depends upon in which sex it is expressed, such that
one allele yields highest fitness when expressed in males and another when
expressed in females. This can even lead to the adaptive evolution of lowered population
fitness! Alternatively, sexual conflict can generate "arms races"
between the sexes, known as sexually antagonistic coevolution. Our empirical
work is done primarily with a variety of different insects. In collaboration
with researchers in USA, Canada, Australia and England, we aim both at
characterizing various male-female conflicts, and at understanding the
far-reaching consequences and coevolutionary dynamics of these types of genetic
conflicts. Below are pictures of three of our model systems: a Sabethine mosquito where both sexes carry striking leg
ornaments, a male and a female water strider engaged in a premating “struggle”
and a mating pair of seed beetles (Callosobruchus
maculatus).
- More than a century after Darwin,
our understanding of the process by which new species are formed is still
incomplete. In our lab, we are aiming at illuminating the processes involved
both in the evolution of reproductive isolation (speciation) and in evolution
leading to extinction of lineages. We are interested in understanding (1) the
evolution of hybrid inviability, (2) the evolution of "cryptic"
reproductive isolation that occurs after mating, such that females may mate
with males of both their own and other species but yet will produce no or
little hybrid offspring, (3) how sexual selection contributes to the evolution
of species specific “signals”, including male seminal fluid proteins transferred
to females at mating and (4) which gene families diverge most rapidly upon
speciation. The last point is addressed using comparative genomics, within and
between species, of seed beetles.
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