Leonardo Velazco

leo22mail.fresnostate.edu

I am interested in the underlying genetic factors involved in speciation. Speciation is the process by which new biological species arise. Populations of the nematode Caenorhabditis briggsae exhibit a developmental delay phenotype amongst F2 hybrids of tropical (AF16-India) and temperate (HK104-Japan) strains indicating the onset of speciation. I am building on previous work that has narrowed down the location of a single locus involved in the developmental delay phenotype to chromosome III. My work involves identifying the genetic variant on chromosome III using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) genotyping of delayed F2 hybrids to identify gene(s) responsible for the developmental delay phenotype in C. briggsae hybrids. Identifying recombination breakpoints in F2 hybrids will narrow down the locus where gene(s) implicated with developmental delay are found allowing further studies to elucidate the genetic process involved in speciation.