I am an undergraduate student in Stony Brook University’s Biochemistry program graduating in May 2009.  I am interested in molecular evolution and population genetics.

Projects:

Currently I am working on the characterization and the natural history of the insertion/deletion polymorphism in the OR22A and OR22B genes in Drosophila melanogaster.  In this project I plan on characterizing the insertion/deletion alleles at the DNA sequence level and constructing a molecular phylogeny in order to determine the evolutionary history and possible relationships between the polymorphism on two continents, Africa and North America.  I will also examine the predicted protein sequence encoded by the deletion alleles in order to examine the possible function consequences of the deletion.

I have worked for two years with Roman Yukilevich on the genetic history of D. melanogaster in the Caribbean.  The markers I characterized in that work were in genes encoding divergent cuticle hydrocarbons, which function as pheromones with possible pleiotropic effects starvation and desiccation resistance in addition to their possible roles in sexual discrimination between African and cosmopolitan populations. I also characterized variation at several microsatellite loci (see Fig. 1 for an example), which should reflect purely historical demographic processes.  Specifically, we asked whether genetic variation at these loci show 1) clinal, 2) isolation by distance or 3) random geographical patterns.

Awards:

Howard Hughes Medical Institute Undergraduate Research Scholar; Academic Year 2007-2008.

Figure 1. Geographic pattern of variation at microsatellite locus DS 40 in African, Caribbean, and Southeast US populations of D. melanogaster.

‘