Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

There is a wide variety of organisms on this planet, yet one of the great unanswered questions in biology is how new species are formed and maintained at the genetic level. The question of species formation and maintenance is critical for our understanding of evolution as well as the conservation of endangered species. Two primary goals of research on species formation are determining the genetic factors that prevent interspecies reproduction and identifying the evolutionary forces driving their divergence. My research will identify genes contributing to the genetic basis of variation for reproductive traits both within and between species, which will provide new insight into the mechanisms by which new species arise as well as enhancing our general understanding of how variation in behavioural traits arise. I will first characterize genes for variation in mating behaviour within Drosophila melanogaster. Comparing these loci for within-species variation to those for between-species variation will allow me to address whether loci for variation within a species are the same as those causing divergence between species. Therefore, I will also identify loci for mate discrimination between two species: an initial genome-wide map for D. simulans and D. sechellia; and mapping to individual loci for D. simulans and D. mauritiana. Additional comparisons of these two interspecies data sets will allow me to address whether loci isolating D. simulans from D. sechellia and D. mauritiana are the same. Lastly, I will localize factors influencing hybrid sterility by identifying the source of misexpression in the spermatogenesis pathway in D. simulans / D. sechellia and D. simulans / D. mauritiana hybrids. All of these studies will contribute to my broader goal of understanding the genetic basis of species formation and maintenance. They will require genomics, Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) mapping, transgenics, gene expression, and behavioural assays using the powerful model system of Drosophila. These objectives and techniques complement my nomination as a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Functional Genomics.