Christina Burch
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC·Ecology & Evolution
How does one species split into two? New species arise when populations build up genetic differences that make their hybrid offspring weak or unable to survive.
- Fields
Ecology & Evolution
Genetics
Microbiology & Immunology
- Topics
speciation
experimental evolution
bacteriophage T7
- Grants
- 1 known grant, last ended Sep 2026
What they work on
- Develop computer simulations and mathematical models that predict the rate at which incompatible adaptations build up between populations evolving in identical environments.
- Evolve replicate populations of bacteriophage T7, a fast-evolving virus that infects bacteria, in identical lab environments and monitor their genetic changes over time.
- Cross pairs of evolving T7 populations to make hybrids and identify mutations that raise fitness in one parent population but reduce fitness in hybrid offspring.
- Measure how fast these incompatible adaptations accumulate and test whether they come from the gene-gene interactions the models predict.
More about the research
It is well known that populations adapting to different environments can evolve this way. But only a few experiments have shown it can also happen when populations evolve in the same environment. This project asks how fast such incompatible changes pile up from the very start of divergence. It connects small evolutionary changes within populations to the origin of new species.
Why it matters
This is basic science. It adds a measured, model-tested account of how the first genetic barriers between populations form, even without environmental differences, which could inform broader understanding of how new species and biodiversity arise.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Daniel Barbash
Cornell University, NY·Genetics
Identify the maternal factors in D. simulans that interact with a D. melanogaster-specific satellite DNA block, a large repetitive non-coding region, to cause chromosome instability and lethality in first-generation hybrids.
Sergey Kryazhimskiy
University of California-San Diego, CA·Ecology & Evolution
Develop mathematical theory for how the biochemical architecture of cells, starting with complex metabolic networks, constrains the shape of fitness landscapes and how mutations move organisms across them.
Caitlin Smukowski Heil
North Carolina State University, NC·Genetics
Build genome-wide recombination maps for multiple Saccharomyces uvarum populations using whole genome sequencing, and compare how double-strand breaks are repaired as crossovers versus non-crossover gene conversions.
The school
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: 72 labs on PI Pages, $1.6B a year on research, 523 research doctorates a year.
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