RESEARCH

Insects transmit their genetic traits exactly like humans, but breed much faster. By examining how their genomes evolve from generation to generation and how those genomes differ among related species, knowledge can be gained that can eventually be used to fight inherited human disease.

Dr. DeSalle is in the forefront of this effort. To date, he has isolated the genes and sequenced the DNA of 500 species of drosophila-fruit flies-from embryos to maturity. With the help of Dr. Ward Wheeler, also of the Division of Invertebrate Zoology, this information is used to create a database comparing the flies' genetic relationships with other species and organisms. Their ultimate goal is to do similar research on all the approximately 3,500 species of fruit flies, to build a complete evolutionary tree.

Our common genetic heritage-we share 36 percent of our genes with insects and 99 percent with apes and chimpanzees-is one of the many topics examined in the Museum's exhibition The Genomic Revolution, which Dr. DeSalle curated and which opened in May 2001.

Dr. DeSalle also works closely with scientists from the New York Wildlife Conservation Society on research in conservation genetics. With Dr. George Amato, he has developed a DNA test for caviar that can determine from a single egg if the product was illegally obtained from an endangered species. With Dr. Howard Rosenbaum, he is analyzing the DNA of blubber from the humpbacked whale of Madagascar. The results of this research will be used to determine if these whales have sufficient genetic diversity to resist disease, or whether special conservation efforts will be needed to ensure survival of the species.

Recent Significant Publications

Gatesy J, DeSalle R, Wahlberg N. 2007. How many genes should a systematist sample? Conflicting insights from a phylogenomic matrix characterized by replicated incongruence. Syst Biol 56(2):355-363.

Naro-Maciel E, Becker JH, Lima EH, Marcovaldi MA, DeSalle R. 2007. Testing dispersal hypotheses in foraging green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) of Brazil. J Hered 98(1):29-39.

Chen Z, Schiffman M, Herrero R, DeSalle R, Burk RD. 2007. Human papillomavirus (HPV) types 101 and 103 isolated from cervicovaginal cells lack an E6 open reading frame (ORF) and are related to gamma-papillomaviruses. Virology 360(2):447-453.

DeSalle R. 2006. Species discovery versus species identification in DNA barcoding efforts: response to Rubinoff. Conserv Biol 20(5):1545-1547.

Leebens-Mack J, Vision T, Brenner E, Bowers JE, Cannon S, Clement MJ, Cunningham CW, Depamphilis C, DeSalle R, Doyle JJ, Eisen JA, Gu X, Harshman J, Jansen RK, Kellogg EA, Koonin EV, Mishler BD, Philippe H, Pires JC, Qiu YL, Rhee SY, Sjolander K, Soltis DE, Soltis PS, Stevenson DW, Wall K, Warnow T, Zmasek C. 2006. Taking the first steps towards a standard for reporting on phylogenies: Minimum Information About a Phylogenetic Analysis (MIAPA). OMICS 10(2):231-237.

Burk RD, DeSalle R. 2006. The tango and tangle of human papillomavirus and the human genome. J Natl Cancer Inst 98(15):1026-1027.

Lienau EK, DeSalle R, Rosenfeld JA, Planet PJ. 2006. Reciprocal illumination in the gene content tree of life. Syst Biol 55(3):441-453.

Garcia-Espana A, Chung PJ, Zhao X, Lee A, Pellicer A, Yu J, Sun TT, DeSalle R. 2006. Origin of the tetraspanin uroplakins and their co-evolution with associated proteins: Implications for uroplakin structure and function. Mol Phylogenet Evol 41(2):355-367.

de la Torre JE, Egan MG, Katari M, Brenner ED, Stevenson DW, Coruzzi GM, DeSalle R. 2006. ESTimating plant phylogeny: lessons from partitioning. BMC Evol Biol 6(1):48

Chiu JC, Lee EK, Egan MG, Sarkar IN, Coruzzi GM, DeSalle R. 2006. OrthologID: automation of genome-scale ortholog identification within a parsimony framework. Bioinformatics 22(6):699-707.

DeSalle R. 2006. What's in a character? J Biomed Inform 39(1):6-17.

Editorial and Adjunct Appointments

• Editor, Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution
• Adjunct Professor, Columbia University
• Adjunct Professor, CUNY
• Adjunct Professor, New York University

Postdocs

• Angélica Cibrián Jaramillo (PhD 2007, Columbia University) - palms, cycads, STRs, ESTs, genetic resources
• MariaPia DiBonaventura (PhD 1995, Univ. di Firenze, Italy) - microbial genomics
• Eugenia Naro-Maciel (PhD 2006, Columbia University) - sea turtles, conservation, fisheries
• Cristina Pomilla (PhD 2005, NYU) - whales, arctic mammals, fisheries, social/population structure
• Paul J. Planet (PhD 2003, Columbia University) - bacteria, pathogenicity, genomic islands
• Diana S. Weber (PhD 2003, SUNY Albany) - marine mammals, arctic mammals, MHC, conservation

Graduate students

• Francisca C. Almeida (NYU) - Drosophila, rodents, bats, speciation genes, paralogy, horizontal gene transfer, speciation
• Samuel N. Crane (CUNY) - Phytophaga, weevils, systematics, phylogenetics, host associations
• Isabela de Macedo Gomes Dias (Univ. Fed. de Minas Gerais, Brazil) - marsupials, fitness, habitat fragmentation
• Mike F. Friedman (CUNY) - snakes, systematics, morphology
• C. A. "Corky" Gaines (Fordham University) - whales, ancient DNA, gene flow, conservation
• Sergios-Orestis Kolokotronis (Columbia University) - elephants, pathogens, molecular evolution/demography, Pleistocene
• Jacqueline Ay-Ling Loo (NYU) - whales, dolphins, population structure, gene flow
• Martin Mendez (Columbia University) - dolphins, whales, anacondas, population structure, gene flow
• Kevin J. Olival (Columbia University) - flying foxes, Nipah virus, SE Asia
• Aloysius J . Phillips (Columbia University) - early nervous system development, phylogenetic inference
• Kari L. Schmidt (Columbia University) - Neotropical parrots, macaws, conservation units, breeding programs
• Craig J. Starger (Columbia University) - corals, gene flow, marine protected areas
• Eric O. Stiner (CUNY) - malaria, bats, primates, phylogenetics
• Angel Tibbs (CUNY) - pathogenic bacteria, genomic islands

Visiting scientists

• Michael Levandowsky (Pace University) - microbial communities
• Melanie Harasym (College of New Rochelle) - bacterial phylogenetics

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