Molecular errors and evolvabilityI’m a postdoc in the Masel lab, where I do research on theoretical population genetics
(a shift from other recent research; see below). I’m interested in the quirks and
imperfections of the molecular machinery responsible for accurate transcription and
translation of DNA and RNA, and how errors made by this molecular machinery could
impact evolution. Rajon and Masel (2011) developed a model showing that molecular error
rates and the DNA/RNA sequences that are expressed when such errors occur are subject to
coevolutionary dynamics in asexual populations. There is feedback in the system, and this
feedback results in bistability: populations adaptively evolve either local (e.g. sequence
evolution) or global (e.g. molecular error reduction) solutions. These alternate solutions
in turn can have different evolvability properties. I am extending this model to sexual
populations to check whether bistability similarly results, with similar consequences for
evolvability. I’m coding the model in Python, with the help of simuPOP
Speciation, social selection, and parapatry in sunbirds
My dissertation work was done in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology and the Department of
Integrative Biology at UC Berkeley, with Dr. Rauri Bowie. My primary interests were in
the evolution of vocal signals and their role in speciation in a species complex of
sky-island inhabiting double-collared sunbirds (genus Nectarinia). This research involved
extensive field time in eastern Africa, primarily in Tanzania but also in Kenya and
Mozambique. These efforts are in the process of being submitted and published. A talk on
my dissertation research can be seen at: