Intragenomic conflict and genomic imprinting
Genomic imprinting is a pattern of gene expression where the gene copy inherited from one parent is silenced, but the other is expressed. So far genomic imprinting has been observed in mammals, flowering plants, and insects. One explanation for why this might have arisen is David Haig's kinship theory, which suggests that conflict between the maternal-origin and paternal-origin genes drives this unusual pattern. I'm interested in exploring what forces drive this intragenomic conflict, which genes we expect to become imprinted, and what this can tell us about social evolution more generally. To do this I use a combination of population genetic models, and databases of genomic information.
Genomic imprinting is a pattern of gene expression where the gene copy inherited from one parent is silenced, but the other is expressed. So far genomic imprinting has been observed in mammals, flowering plants, and insects. One explanation for why this might have arisen is David Haig's kinship theory, which suggests that conflict between the maternal-origin and paternal-origin genes drives this unusual pattern. I'm interested in exploring what forces drive this intragenomic conflict, which genes we expect to become imprinted, and what this can tell us about social evolution more generally. To do this I use a combination of population genetic models, and databases of genomic information.
Patterning of the meristem
How the different cells within a multicellular organism manage to coordinate their actions to act as a coherent whole is one of the great problems of developmental biology. The growing tip of a plant, the meristem, is one of the key model systems for understanding these problems. Here a pool of stem cells is maintained throughout the life of the plant, even as the plant grows, and buds develop. I've used a combination of morphometric techniques and computational modelling to analyse the variation in the shape of different domains of the meristem, and see how well our current understanding of the patterning process recreates this variation in shape.
How the different cells within a multicellular organism manage to coordinate their actions to act as a coherent whole is one of the great problems of developmental biology. The growing tip of a plant, the meristem, is one of the key model systems for understanding these problems. Here a pool of stem cells is maintained throughout the life of the plant, even as the plant grows, and buds develop. I've used a combination of morphometric techniques and computational modelling to analyse the variation in the shape of different domains of the meristem, and see how well our current understanding of the patterning process recreates this variation in shape.
