Evolutionary genomic analyses of speciation
We are interested in the origin, population genetics, and molecular evolution of genomic novelties, such as gene duplications or gene expression changes. Closely related species are particularly useful to study the evolution of the genome in the context of species differentiation and the processes promoting it.
In essence, we are working to establish cases of closely related species that are not completely reproductively isolated yet, i.e. either hybridize in the wild or have done so in the recent past. Under such ongoing gene flow scenarios it is possible to distinguish groups of genes that can traverse the species boundary more easily than others. From these we may be able to study the role of selection and drift in the divergence between species at particular loci.
Currently we work on macaques in SE Asia. In the long term we wish to explore the research opportunities offered by the recent origin, rapid rate of speciation and niche diversification, and the now vast geographic range of more than 60 closely related Rattus species in SE Asia and Australia. To study the genome evolution in this group we are using the published rat genome sequence and other genomic resources to examine how biogeography and natural selection have interacted to generate diversity at the taxonomic and genomic level in less than 2-3 million years.
Representative publication:
- Laurie S. Stevison and Michael H. Kohn. (2009). Divergence population genetic analysis of hybridization between rhesus and cynomolgus macaques. Molecular Ecology
.
Detecting the signature of natural selection for warfarin
rodenticide resistance on rat chromosome 1