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Evolution and genetic control of complex phenotypes Theodore J. Morgan. My research is motivated by the fact that most species are subdivided into finite systems of subpopulations and that the pattern of phenotypic and genetic variation within and among populations provides crucial information about evolutionary processes in nature. Determining the relative effects of diverse evolutionary processes in producing local adaptation and population differentiation is of central importance to all of evolutionary biology. Motivated by these facts, my research uses a combination of quantitative genetic, molecular genetic, candidate gene, and statistical approaches to investigate the evolution and genetics of ecologically important phenotypes in nature. Currently my research focuses on the evolution and genetic control of these complex phenotypes in Drosophila. Within Drosophila species numerous ecologically relevant and potentially adaptive phenotypes exist and exhibit complex patterns of genetic variation within and among populations and species. One very interesting class of these phenotypes are the thermotolerance phenotypes as they exhibit large amounts of genetic variation within and among populations and exhibit patterns of phenotypic expression that correlate with temperature gradients in nature. To disentangle the complex genetic architecture and understand the evolutionary processes influencing thermotolerance my lab uses a multifaceted approach to identify genes controlling thermotolerance, identify genes contributing to natural variation in thermotolerance, and dissect how molecular variation in these loci contributes to phenotypic variation in nature. The questions addressed in my lab broadly focus on: 1) The identification and genetic dissection of the individual loci influencing phenotypes of ecological importance to Drosophila, and characterizing the individual effects of these loci across ages and environments. 2) The analysis of the role of molecular variation within these loci on the expression of phenotypic and genetic variation within and among populations and species in nature. 3) Linking the genetic architecture to the phenotype via QTL and whole-genome expression analysis. With these ultimate goals in mind, my future research will continue to use a diverse set of methods and approaches to examine the genetic architecture and evolution of thermotolerance and other fitness phenotypes in Drosophila. This work will motivate additional studies building on my previous research on the quantitative genetics and evolution of function-valued traits, as well as methods for detecting the roles of genetic drift and natural selection among differentiated populations.
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