Barbash Lab
Principal Investigator: Daniel A Barbash
Institution: Cornell University (Ithaca, NY)
Primary Subfield: Molecular & Cell Bio
Recruitment Status: Inquire for rotation/fellowship opportunities
Research Focus
Project summary Drosophila (fruit flies) are an exceptional model for evolutionary genetics, with many species that can be subjected to the full suite of modern genetic and genomic methods that have been developed in the model species D. melanogaster. Hybrids between D. melanogaster and its sibling species D. sim- ulans are a long-standing model of speciation and our group has made several key contributions to understanding the genetic basis of hybrid incompatibilities between them. One major effort here will be to identify the maternal factors in D. simulans that interact with a large satellite block specific to D. melanogaster to cause F1 hybrid lethality. This will allow us to obtain a mechanistic understanding of how rapidly evolving non-coding DNA can lead to chromosome instability and lethality between spe- cies. Drosophila have also played a major role in the discovery of the phenomenon of meiotic drive, where different alleles segregate non-randomly from heterozygous parents in violation of Mendel’s first law of equal segregation. Meiotic drive can cause reductions in organismal fertility, drive rapid changes in karyotypes including of sex chromosomes, and contribute to spe…
Active NIH Awards
- 5R35GM153275-03: Evolutionary Genetics of Drosophila (2026)
- 5R35GM153275-02: Evolutionary Genetics of Drosophila (2025)
- 1R35GM153275-01: Evolutionary Genetics of Drosophila (2024)
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