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General
Research:
My interest is
to understand the evolutionary and genetic mechanisms of adaptation and
speciation using both empirical and theoretical approaches.
Incipient
Speciation.
Incipient sexual isolation in the model organism fruit fly Drosophila
melanogaster populations has recently revealed important novel insights
into very beginning stages of speciation where behaviors and phenotypes
leading to divergence and reproductive isolation are still segregating in
natural populations. I am interested in understanding the phenotypic basis
of mating discrimination and how different cases of sexual isolation within
this species relate to one another.
Genetic
Architecture of Incipient Speciation.
I have used genome-wide Affymetrix tiling arrays to study genomic
differentiation between US, Caribbean and African D. melanogaster
populations in order to uncover highly differentiated regions in the genome
across these populations and to determine patterns of genomic admixture
between US and African flies in the Caribbean populations. This work will
generate candidate loci for phenotypic evolution in this species. I have
also recently joined Chung-I Wu’s lab to work on the genetic basis of
female mating preferences that cause incipient sexual isolation between
Zimbabwe (Z) and cosmopolitan (M) populations. This system is one of the
most incipient cases of sexual isolation within species that can be studied
genetically and molecularly. I will detail what looks to be a fascinating
genetic architecture governing these behaviors using repeated introgression-selection-genotyping scheme. My recent
work in the Wu lab using whole-chromosome substitution M and Z lines
(Hollocher et al. 1997) shows that female mating preferences involve complex genetic epistasis, which is
of special interest in the context of speciation genetics.
The Role
of Epistatic Genetic Networks in Adaptation and Speciation.
My theoretical interests are presently concerned with understanding the
role of epistatic genetic architecture in speciation and particularly how
functional epistasis in gene networks affects rates of adaptation within
species and how this impacts the patterns and rates of accumulation of
reproductive isolation between populations under various historical and
biogeographical contexts. I am using computer simulation modeling to make
testable predictions of these processes.
Publications:
Yukilevich,
R., and
J. R. True (2008b) African morphology, behavior and pheromones underlie
incipient sexual isolation between US and Caribbean Drosophila
melanogaster. Evolution. In Press. PDF REPRINT
Yukilevich,
R., and
J. R. True (2008a) Incipient sexual isolation among cosmopolitan Drosophila
melanogaster populations. Evolution. 62(8):2112-2121. PDF REPRINT
Yukilevich,
R., J.
Lachance, F. Aoki, and J. R. True (2008) Long-term adaptation of epistatic
genetic networks. Evolution. 62(9):2215-2235. PDF REPRINT
Nosil, P. and R.
Yukilevich (2008) Mechanisms of reinforcement in natural and simulated
polymorphic populations. Biol. J. Linn. Soc. 95:305-319. PDF REPRINT
Yukilevich,
R., and
J. R. True (2006) Divergent outcomes of reinforcement speciation: the
relative importance of assortative mating and migration modification. American
Naturalist. 167(55):638-654. PDF
REPRINT
Yukilevich,
R.
(2005) Dispersal evolution in fragmented habitats: the interplay between
the tendency and ability to disperse. Evolutionary Ecology Research.
7(7):973-992. PDF REPRINT
Manuscripts:
Yukilevich,
R., T.
Turner, S. Nuzhdin, and J. R. True. In Prep. Title NA.
Yukilevich,
R., T.
Turner, J. R. True, and S. Nuzhdin. In Prep. Title NA.
Funding:
Postdoctoral
Fellowship from University of Chicago (2008)
National
Science Foundation: Dissertation Improvement Grant (2006)
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