DISSERTATION RESEARCH: An evolutionary genetic analysis of a Y chromosome rearrangement in Drosophila pseudoobscura

Cornell University, Ithaca NY

Investigators

Abstract

Recent findings identify many instances in which genes necessary for male fertility have moved around in their genomes. An exemplary case of this is in the fruit fly Drosophila pseudoobscura, where the male fertility factors that are on the Y chromosome in most fruit fly species have translocated to a small non-sex chromosome. This finding is striking since male-related genes usually move onto rather than away from the Y chromosome. The analysis proposed will use the latest DNA sequencing technology, computer simulations and modeling techniques to elucidate the structural changes involved in this gene movement. This project began as a collaboration with Dr. Bernardo Carvalho, a faculty member of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. He continues to visit for two weeks each year, sometimes bringing a student from his lab, so the current proposal can be considered as ancillary to another positive international collaboration. The study is central to Amanda Larracuente's Ph.D. thesis, and the prior studies in the area have already provided training and educational experiences for several undergraduates in the lab, including Belinda Haerum and Elizabeth Larimore. Male infertility is a common genetic disorder, and studies of model systems at this level provide clues as to why populations maintain observed levels of Y-linked male sterility.