Luciano Matias Matzkin

Luciano Matias Matzkin

Associate Professor, Entomology
Associate Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Associate Professor, BIO5 Institute
Primary Department
Department Affiliations
Contact
(520) 621-1955

Work Summary

Understanding how genes and genomes are shaped over many generations by the environment in which organisms live in. We also aim to examine how these changes accumulate and might facilitate the genetic divergence between populations and eventually possibly the origin of species. Lastly we aim to leverage the power of genomics to understand the evolution of insecticide resistance in agricultural pests and to find solution to their management.

Research Interest

Our lab investigates how the ecology of a species shapes patterns of variation at multiple levels (genes, pathways, transcriptomes, genomes, physiology, behavior and life history), how populations adapt to environmental shifts (natural or human created), how genetic architecture can dictate the evolutionary trajectory of populations, the implication of ecological adaptation in the process of speciation and the role of sexual selection and sexual conflict in the evolution of reproductive incompatibilities. Our research revolves around these fundamental aspects of evolutionary biology. We work on a group of cactophilic Drosophila that inhabit the deserts of North America. These Drosophila species are an excellent system to study given that their ecology is well understood and the fact that we can perform many genetic, genomic, manipulative and life history experiments. In addition to utilizing the cactophilic Drosophila system we have ongoing projects on the agrigenomics of the agricultural pests, Drosophila suzukii (spotted wing Drosophila) and Helicoverpa zea (corn earworm). Keywords: Evolutionary, ecological and agricultural genomics

Publications

Bono, J. M., Matzkin, L. M., Castrezana, S., & Markow, T. A. (2008). Molecular evolution and population genetics of two Drosophila mettleri cytochrome P450 genes involved in host plant utilization. Molecular Ecology, 17(13), 3211-3221.
Matzkin, L. M. (2014). Ecological Genomics of Host Shifts in Drosophila mojavensis. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, 781(781), 233-247. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-7347-9_12
Matzkin, L. M., & Markow, T. A. (2009). Transcriptional regulation of metabolism associated with the increased desiccation resistance of the cactophilic Drosophila mojavensis. Genetics, 182(4), 1279-1288.
Bono, J. M., Matzkin, L. M., Hoang, K., & Brandsmeier, L. (2015). Molecular evolution of candidate genes involved in post-mating-prezygotic reproductive isolation. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 28(2), 403-14. doi:10.1111/jeb.12574
Matzkin, L. M., Watts, T. D., & Markow, T. A. (2007). Desiccation resistance in four Drosophila species: Sex and population effects.. Fly, 1(5), 268-273.