The genomic architecture of adaptation in Drosophila melanogaster (GRIESHOP_UBIO25ARIES)
Key Details
- Application deadline
- 8 January 2025 (midnight UK time)
- Location
- UEA
- Funding type
- Competition Funded Project (UK and International)
- Start date
- 1 October 2025
- Mode of study
- Full or part time
- Programme type
- PhD
Project description
Primary supervisor - Dr Karl Grieshop
Background
Understanding how organisms adapt to their environment is fundamental to evolutionary biology and a pressing concern amidst the climate and biodiversity crises. Can evolution by natural selection “keep up” with the rapid pace of climate change? Evolution is a slow process of allele frequency changes over generations, but if alleles are dominant when / where they benefit fitness and recessive when / where deleterious – a phenomenon known as “dominance reversal” – it can facilitate rapid adaptation and make the population resilient to fluctuating environments. Further, sex differences in the strength and direction of selection can also affect adaptation. Taken together, dominance reversals between sexes and environments represent an exciting new angle to the study of adaptation, with a rich theoretical foundation, growing empirical interest, and much more to learn.
Project
The research integrates quantitative genetics and transcriptomics in Drosophila melanogaster with simulations in SLiM to address these questions:
1. What is the role of dominance reversal between sex and temperature in facilitating climate adaptation?
2. What is the genetic architecture of sex- / temperature-specific fitness?
3. How does dominance-reversed gene expression relate to fitness?
4. Can we identify specific genomic loci that mediate climate adaptation?
There will be many opportunities to develop your own ideas and tailor your PhD experience to match your career ambitions.
Training
The University of East Anglia is an enriching research environment in Norwich Research Park, home to numerous biotechnology research institutes that offer bioinformatic training and support. The department features a highly collaborative community of leading experts in evolutionary biology (e.g. Bergström, Davidson, Chapman, Immler, Maklakov, Richardson) and forms part of the Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Conservation. You will receive direct training from the primary supervisor (KG) and his lab in Drosophila husbandry, experimental design, biological statistics, quantitative genetics, RNA extraction, bioinformatics, population genetic simulations, programming (R, bash, Python, SLiM), as well as scientific writing for grant funding and publication.
Person specification
Degree in biology / ecology / evolution / genetics / similar
Helpful skills: Drosophila experience, evolutionary knowledge, enthusiasm to learn statistics / coding / bioinformatics, keenness to read and write.
Entry requirements
The minimum entry requirement is 2:1 in a Bachelor’s degree in Biology, Ecology, Evolution,Genetics or similar.
Funding
This project has been shortlisted for funding under the ARIES BBSRC-NERC Doctoral Landscape Award (DLA) scheme. Successful candidates who meet UKRI's eligibility criteria will be awarded a fully-funded ARIES studentship of fees, maintenance stipend (19,237 p.a for 2024/25) and research costs.
A limited number of ARIES studentships are available to International applicants. Please note however that ARIES funding does not cover additional costs associated with relocation to, and living in, the UK.
ARIES is committed to equality, diversity, widening participation and inclusion in all areas of its operation. We encourage applications from all sections of the community regardless of gender, ethnicity, disability, age, sexual orientation, and transgender status. Projects have been developed with consideration of a safe, inclusive, and appropriate research and fieldwork environment. Academic qualifications are considered alongside non-academic experience, with equal weighting given to experience and potential.
For further information, please visit www.aries-dtp.ac.uk
References
Grieshop, K., Ho, E. K., & Kasimatis, K. R. (2024). Dominance reversals: the resolution of genetic conflict and maintenance of genetic variation. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 291(2018), 20232816. (DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2023.2816)
Di, C. and Lohmueller, K.E. (2024). Revisiting Dominance in Population Genetics. Genome Biology and Evolution, 16(8), p.evae147. (DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evae147)
Mishra, P., Barrera, T. S., Grieshop, K., & Agrawal, A. F. (2022). Cis-regulatory variation in relation to sex and sexual dimorphism in Drosophila melanogaster. bioRxiv, 2022-09. (DOI: 10.1101/2022.09.20.508724)
Grieshop, K. and Arnqvist, G. (2018). Sex-specific dominance reversal of genetic variation for fitness. PLoS biology, 16(12), p.e2006810. (DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.2006810)
Berger, D., Grieshop, K., Lind, M.I., Goenaga, J., Maklakov, A.A. and Arnqvist, G. (2014). Intralocus sexual conflict and environmental stress. Evolution, 68(8), pp.2184-2196. (DOI: 10.1111/evo.12439)