Daniel Barbash
Cornell University, NY·Genetics
How do new species become unable to interbreed, and how do the genetic rules of inheritance themselves evolve? Fruit flies (Drosophila) are well suited to these questions.
- Fields
Genetics
Ecology & Evolution
Biology
- Topics
Drosophila
fruit fly
evolutionary genetics
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Mar 2029
What they work on
- 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.
- Conduct a high-throughput, sensitive screen for meiotic drive, where one allele is transmitted to more than half of the offspring, across all chromosomes in natural D. melanogaster and D. simulans populations, comparing male and female drive.
- Genetically map and characterize natural variation within D. melanogaster that affects the reliability of the X-chromosome-counting signal controlling the sex determination switch gene.
- Trace gains and losses of sex determination signal elements across about 100 fully sequenced species spanning the Drosophila family tree, to understand the evolutionary forces that reshape this signal.
More about the research
Many species have fully sequenced genomes and can be studied with the powerful genetic tools developed in D. melanogaster. A single grant supports three related projects in evolutionary genetics: why hybrids between species die, how often chromosomes cheat Mendel's rules, and how the signal that decides male versus female changes over evolution.
Why it matters
This is basic science on how animals evolve. It explains how fast-changing DNA can make hybrids between species inviable, how often selfish chromosomes break the normal rules of inheritance in nature, and why sex determination systems change. The results add to the understanding of how species form and how genetic systems controlling fertility and sex evolve across animals.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
John E Pool
University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI·Ecology & Evolution
Develop a genomic authentication pipeline that detects contamination in Drosophila lab stocks and characterizes their genomes, applying it to 200 widely studied stocks.
Jacob L Mueller
University of Michigan, MI·Genetics
Determine how the dosage of SLX and SLXL1 proteins on the X chromosome affects their molecular competition with Y-linked SLY1 and SLY2, using yeast three-hybrid competitions and massively parallel sequencing screens.
Yuan Yuan Kang
University of Houston-Downtown, TX·Neuroscience
Map quantitative trait loci behind the difference in novel-arena exploration between generalist Drosophila simulans and specialist Drosophila sechellia, using a new population of recombinant inbred lines.
The school
Cornell University: 37 labs on PI Pages, $1.6B a year on research, 537 research doctorates a year.
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