Prof. Daniela Delneri FRSB

Professor of Evolutionary Genomics

Research Focus

Evolutionary Genomics, Molecular evolution in hybrids, Speciation, Biodiversity, Large-scale studies and Functional profiling of ncRNAs

Scientific Activities

Analysing the relationships between genotype, phenotype and fitness to assess whether gross genomic rearrangements have adaptive value in asexually propagated yeast populations, and to establish their contribution as reproductive isolation barrier between species. Explore the potential effects of centromeres on speciation in Saccharomyces. Investigate the environmental specificity of genetic interactions, the dispensability and the robustness of biological systems.

Investigate the nature of protein network in yeast hybrids (where two diverged proteomes co-exist) to determine the evolutionary role of chimeric protein complexes and shed light on the possible molecular mechanisms of hybrid vigour; quantify the degree of sequence divergence required to affect the binding in protein complexes and to understand the efficiency with which homologous proteins, from different species, are able to interact to form complexes

Use of yeast mutant collections in genome profiling and large-scale functional analysis to assess the contribution of individual genes to the organism fitness under different environmental challenges, in the presence of chemical compounds (such as drugs of pharaceutical relevance) and in different genetic backgrounds. 

Use of high-density yeast tiling microarrays to analyse polymorphisms and map genes in segregants of intra-specific hybrids in order to detect regions that contribute to the partial reproductive isolation between different yeast strains.

Significant Publications

Piatkowska E.M., Naseeb S., Knight D. and Delneri D. (2013) Chimeric protein complexes in hybrid species generate novel evolutionary phenotypes, PLoS Genetics 9: e1003836. Highlights in Nature Reviews Genetics: 14, 822; 2.

Delneri D., Hoyle D.C., Gkargkas K., Cross E.J.M., Rash B., Zeef L., Leong H.-S., Davey H., Hayes A., Kell D.B., Griffith G.W., and Oliver S.G. (2008). Identification and characterisation of high flux control (HFC) genes of Saccharomyces cerevisiae through competition analyses in continuous cultures. Nature Genetics, 40: 113-117. 3.

Harrison R., Papp B., Pal C., Oliver S.G. and Delneri D. (2007) Plasticity of genetic interactions in metabolic networks of yeast, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 104: 2307-2312.

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Collaborators