Patricia Wittkopp
University of Michigan, MI·Genetics
Why do individuals of the same species differ, and how do species become distinct from each other? This project traces the differences between living things back to their source.
- Fields
Genetics
Ecology & Evolution
Biology
- Topics
evolutionary genetics
gene regulation
gene expression
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2027
What they work on
- Identify the genes and specific DNA changes behind trait differences within and between fruit fly (Drosophila) species, and determine how they alter molecular, cellular and developmental processes.
- Determine how gene regulatory networks evolve, separating cis-acting changes (DNA near a gene) from trans-acting changes (factors acting from elsewhere) using genomics in flies and yeast.
- Measure the relative contributions of new mutations and natural selection to variation in gene expression, using baker's yeast (Saccharomyces) together with evolutionary genetics and bioinformatics.
More about the research
It looks for the genes involved, the specific DNA changes in those genes, and how those changes alter the workings of cells and development. It also asks how mutation, which creates new variation, and natural selection, which filters it, have together shaped these differences.
Why it matters
Understanding how genetic and molecular changes produce trait differences over evolutionary and developmental time could help explain where disease-related variation comes from and how it acts. A general framework for interpreting variation in gene regulation may eventually help researchers interpret human genetic differences linked to health.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Meredith Protas
University of San Francisco, CA·Genetics
Map the genome regions responsible for eye loss in two cave populations of the crustacean Asellus aquaticus and in a surface-population intercross, using RADseq (restriction site-associated DNA sequencing) to read markers across the genome.
Leslie Pick
University of Maryland, MD·Genetics
Determine how the milkweed bug Oncopeltus achieves pair-rule segment patterning without the canonical pair-rule genes used by Drosophila, using expression analysis, RNA interference and CRISPR/Cas9.
Beryl Jones
University of Kentucky, KY·Ecology & Evolution
Identify changes in gene regulatory networks (GRNs) linked to evolutionary gains and losses of social behavior across bee species that differ in sociality.
The school
University of Michigan: 124 labs on PI Pages, $2.1B a year on research, 963 research doctorates a year.
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