Marta L. Wayne

personal site

AssociateProfessor
Ph.D. Princeton
University, 1994
427 BAR
Box 118525
Gainesville, FL
32611-8525
Voice: 352-392-9925
Fax:352-392-3704
mlwayne@zoology.ufl.edu

Research Interests

I study the maintenance of genetic variation, because without it, populations can not evolve. There are two ubiquitous and contradictory observations about traits in natural populations: there is genetic variation for almost every trait ever tested, and most traits are under natural selection. These observations are contradictory, because we expect natural selection to erode genetic variation. Why then does variation persist? I use the model organism Drosophila melanogaster. I’m interested in evolutionary quantitative genetics, gene expression, genetical genomics, the evolution of sexual dimorphism, and host-parasite coevolution.

Students Currently Supervised

Frank Bouchard (UF Genetics)

PhD student, "Conservation genetics of the introduced parasitic wasp, Larra bicolor"

Lisa Crummett (Zoology)

PhD student, "A test of 'selection arena' in Campelomalimum as an explanation for the association between brooding and parthenogenesis"

Representative Publications

WAYNE, M. L., M. TELONIS-SCOTT, L. BONO, L. HARSHMAN, A. KOPP, S. V. NUZHDIN and L. M. MCINTYRE 2007. Simpler mode of inheritance of transcriptional variation in male Drosophila melanogaster. PNAS, in press.

JANES, D.E., D.S. BERMUDEZ, L.J. GUILLETTE, and M.L. WAYNE 2007. Estrogens induced male production at a female-producing temperature in a reptile (Leopard Gecko, Eublepharis macularius) with temperature-dependent sex determination. Journal ofHerpetology 41:9-15.

C. M. MILES, M. G. HADFIELD, and M. L. WAYNE 2007. Estimates of heritability for egg size in the serpulid polychaete Hydroides elegans. Marine Ecology Progress Series 340: 155-162.

L. A. HIGGINS, K. M. JONES, and M. L. WAYNE 2005. Quantitative genetics of natural variation of spontaneous behavior in Drosophila melanogaster: the possible role of the social environment on creating persistent patterns of group activity. Evolution, 59(7): 1529-1539.

M. L. WAYNE, Y.-J. PAN, S. V. NUZHDIN, and L. M. MCINTYRE 2004. Additivity and trans-acting effects on gene expression in male Drosophila simulans. Genetics 168: 1413-1420.

M. L. WAYNE and L. M. MCINTYRE 2002. Candidate gene discovery: Combining mapping and microarrays in the genetic analysis of an adaptive trait in Drosophila. PNAS 99: 14903-14906.

M. L. WAYNE and T. F. C. MACKAY 1998. Quantitative genetics of ovariole number in Drosophila melanogaster. II. Mutational variance and genotype x environment interaction, Genetics 148:201-210.

M. L. WAYNE and K. SIMONSEN 1998. Statistical tests of neutrality in the age of weak selection. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 13: 236-240.