Matthew Farnitano
University of Georgia
I am a 5th year graduate student at University of Georgia, studying the dynamics of hybridization and reproductive isolation across a wide range of spatial and temporal scales in wild Mimulus monkeyflowers. My interests broadly involve the origin and maintenance of phenotypic and genetic diversity. Current and past projects include characterizing reproductive isolation in understudied taxa, exploring mating dynamics in hybrid populations, and mapping incompatibility trait loci both within and between species. In addition to my research, I enjoy botanizing and bird-watching, play the piano, and spend time with my one-year-old daughter. I will be looking for postdoctoral opportunities to start in 2025!
Poster number
18
Research interests: Hybridization, Speciation, Reproductive Isolation, Population Genomics, Mating Systems, Evolutionary Genetics
Abstract:
An important goal of speciation research is to identify the genetic loci responsible for maintaining species boundaries. These loci are typically found using two different approaches: 1) mapping of incompatibility phenotypes in controlled crosses, or 2) identifying regions of reduced gene flow in natural hybrid genomes. These methods are often assumed to be measuring the same thing, but their correspondence is rarely tested. The monkeyflower sister pair,
Mimulus guttatus
and
Mimulus nasutus
, provides an opportunity to directly test this correspondence. We use low-coverage whole-genome sequencing on hundreds of individuals to characterize spatial and temporal patterns of genomic ancestry and assortative mating in a persistent hybrid population across multiple years of sampling. We then compare these patterns to previous work mapping loci involved in hybrid sterility, lethality, and assortative mating, both in this same population and other diverse accessions. By explicitly testing the overlap between lab-based mapping methods and natural variation, we can address to what extent these methods capture the same vs. complementary natural processes.
Do hybrid zone introgression patterns correspond with mapped incompatibility loci in a persistent Mimulus hybrid zone?
M. C. FARNITANO
, A. L. SWEIGART
Department of Genetics, University of Georgia, 120 E. Green Street, Athens, GA 30605, USA
My Sessions
Flash talks: part 2
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Flash Talks
Bio Sci 111