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A Drosophila melanogaster fruit fly on a monarch butterfly wing. The fly has been edited to carry mutations from the monarch that allow it to resistant toxins from the milkweed host plant.

What we study

We study molecular mechanisms of adaptations that arise through species interactions—co-evolution in the broad sense.

We are inspired by Charles Darwin’s “entangled bank” of species living all around us that, as he and Alfred Russell Wallace discovered, were created through the process of organic evolution.

To explore molecular mechanisms of co-evolution, we study diverse interactions, including host-parasite, predator-prey, and plant-herbivore antagonisms, as well as mutualisms between hummingbirds and their nectar plants. We use comparative and population genomics, experimental evolution, functional genetics, evo-devo, biochemistry, behavior, chemical ecology, neuroethology, genome editing, and field experiments to pursue our research. Often, our research focuses on the evolution of toxins and their resistance mechanisms.

Curious to learn more about what we do? Click Here. To see papers from our recent research Click Here. Want to learn more about who we are? Click Here.

Read Carl Zimmer’s article in The New York Times about our research using CRISPR to “replay the tape” of life: Click Here
Read Carolyn Wilke’s article in The NewYork Times about how fruit flies evolved to eat living leaves 12 million years ago when they turned an egg-laying organ into a jaw-like structure with teeth derived from bristles that does double duty: Click Here
Read Viviane Callier’s article in Quanta about our work and the burgeoning study of how genes borrowed by animals from microbes has shaped our immune systems and those of diverse animals: Click Here
Read Elizabeth Pennisi’s article in Science on our study showing how an ancient arms-race between plants make neurotoxic terpenoids was matched by the repeated evolution of toxin-resistance in the GABA receptors of herbivores and the ladybird beetles that eat them: Click Here