Ricardo Wilches
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Current Research
PhD thesis adaptation genetics in Drosophila melanogaster
Using the fruit fly, I aim at understanding the genetics of population adaptation to environmental stressors, namely suboptimal temeperatures. During its range expansion out of Africa, D. melanogaster populations successfully colonised territories with seasonal temperature drops. This process should have entitled physiological changes that enabled individuals (females) to survive the cold winter temperatures and give rise to the next fly generation as temperatures become favoruable in the following spring. By comparing ancestral (African) and derived, cold-adapted (European) D. melanogaster populations I am identifying genes that played (and still play) a central role in cold adaptation. Several are genes are thought to be involved in such adaptation process, hence my gene seeking approach is based on quantitative genetics theory and population genetics. In the following I provide a description of my ongoing PhD thesis project:
QTL (Quantitative Trait Loci) approach to identifying genes involved in cold adaptation
Based on previous work at our lab, I have a ~4Mb-long fraction of D. melanogaster X-Chromosome encompassing ~462 genes, in theory a handful of them are responsible for the difference in cold resistance between European and African flies. By using a QTL fine-mapping technique called, Quantitative deficiency mapping I will interrogate intervals within this broad QTL to identify the interval or intervals that account for the phenotypic difference between lines. This search will end up with a list of genes that will further analyzed under the light of molecular population genetics and functional molecular biology.
Functional analyses of putative genes involved in cold adaptation
Adaptation genetics theory provides the tools to scrutinize genomes searching for genes or loci that underwent directional natural selection at a given point in the history of natural populations. By applying these methods to our European population we have identified regions and genes that could have been involved in the adaptation process of ancestral European D. melanogater to cold environments.
Brief curriculum vitae
Education
PhD student. Evolutionary Biology Group, Ludwig Maximilians Universitataet. Munich, Germany (ongoing work)
MSc, Ludwig Maximilians Universitataet. Munich, Germany. 2009
BSc Biology (Biólogo), Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. Bogotá D.C., Colombia. 2004
Fellowships and Awards
2010 Doctoral Fellowship "Evolutionary Biology" awarded by Volkswagen foundation (Germany) project: Evolution of genes related to temperature adaptation in Drosophila melanogaster as revealed by QTL mapping and population genetics analyses.
2007 DAAD Scholarship. Awarded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for graduate studies in Germany. EES graduate school in Evolution, Ecology and Systematics. Ludwig Maximilians Universitataet. Munich. Germany
2006 "Jóven investigador". One-year research training fellowship awarded by the Administrative Department of Science, Technology and Innovation (COLCIENCIAS), Colombia. Project carried out at Instututo de Errores Innatos del Metabolismo (IEIM). Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. Bogota D.C., Colombia.
Study focus
Population genetics, adapative evolution, gene mapping
Publications
Svetec N, Werzner A, Wilches R, et al. 2011. Identification of X-linked quantitative trait loci affecting cold tolerance in Drosophila melanogaster and fine mapping by selective sweep analysis. Molecular Ecology 20: 530–544.
Mendoza E., Hernandez C., Wilches R., Varela L., Villareal J., Barrera L., Villanueva D. 2010. Genotype frecuencies of C/T -13910 and G/A -22018 polymorphism in a colombian caribbean population do not correspond with lactase presistence prevalence reported in the region. Colombia Medica. 41:290-294 Link to journal's site
Morrison W.R., Lohr J.N., Duchen P., Wilches R., Trujillo D., Mair M. and Renner, S.S. 2009. The impact of taxonomic change on conservation: Does it kill, can it save, or is it just irrelevant? Biological Conservation 142: 3201-3206
Wilches, R., Vega, H., Echeverri, O., Barrera, LA . 2006. Los haplotipos colombianos de la mutación N370S causante de la enfermedad de Gaucher pueden provenir de un haplotipo ancestral común. Biomédica . 26:433-441. (In Spanish) Link to journal's site
Personal interests
Architecture (History of art), Drawing, Music (Classical, Jazz and its fussions).
Links to evolutionary biology resources and networks
European society for evolutionary biology (ESEB) here
Red colombiana de biología evolutiva (COLEVOL) here
