Jerry Coyne

BIOGRAPHY

ACADEMIC POSITION:
Professor, Department of Ecology and Evolution

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
I work on a diverse array of topics in the areas of population and evolutionary genetics, speciation, ecological genetics, and molecular evolution.

Although we work on diverse areas of evolutionary genetics, the laboratory's main focus is on the original problem raised by Darwin: the origin of species. Our aim is to understand this process through the genetic patterns it produces. By estimating the numbers, locations, and effects of genes causing reproductive isolation in Drosophila (hybrid sterility, mating discrimination, etc.), we hope to understand whether speciation involves many or only a few genes, whether genetic drift plays a significant role in the process, and whether the movement of transposable elements causes hybrid sterility and inviability. Most of our studies require classical genetic analysis involving crosses among distinct species, but we also collaborate with other groups to construct DNA-based phylogenies of these species, and to use molecular markers for quantitative-trait-locus (QTL) mapping of genes causing reproductive isolation and morphological differences between species. We are also engaged in a variety of other projects, including the dynamics of chromosome evolution and various aspects of the ecological genetics of Drosophila.

I am interested in supervising projects on speciation, ecological and evolutionary genetics, particularly if they involve Drosophila.

HOME PAGE
http://pondside.uchicago.edu/ecol-evol/people/coyne.html