As species adapt to living in caves, they often evolve particular traits that we can observe again and again in unrelated cave-dwelling species. For example, species often lose their eyes or pigmentation, increase their other sensory capabilities and their lifespans, and decrease their reproductive output and metabolic rate (above).
But what genetic changes underlie these phenotype changes? How might gene expression evolve convergently? Are gene expression changes at play during transition to subterranean-linked phenotypes?
These are the questions I am trying to answer in my current research. I am an Australian postdoc based at the Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 in Lyon, France. I am interested in the genetic and genomic processes occurring during convergent evolution in metazoans. My current focus is on the genetic basis of convergent transitions to subterranean life in isopods (such as Asellus aquaticus, which you can see in the image above).
I completed my PhD and first postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Queensland, Australia. Here I explored self-nonself recognition and the incredible immune diversity that exists between individuals and between species of marine sponges. You can read more about this work here. During this work I was lucky enough to complete several field trips on Heron Island in the Great Barrier Reef.
Laura Grice 