Evolution - the Molecular Landscape Interviews with LEIF ANDERSSON & JOHN DOEBLEY interviewed by JANE ALFRED

Leif Andersson’s interest in biology began by watching birds in Sweden as a child. Leif Andersson is today... » More

Leif Andersson’s interest in biology began by watching birds in Sweden as a child. Leif Andersson is today professor in Functional Genomics at Uppsala University and guest professor in Molecular Animal Genetics at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala. The work throughout his career has been inspired by Charles Darwin’s insight that domestic animals provide outstanding models for understanding the mechanisms of phenotypic evolution. Leif Andersson and his group have successfully used molecular genetics and genomics to unravel the molecular basis for phenotypic diversity in domestic animals, from coat colour to metabolic traits. His group has generated highly informative intercrosses between the wild boar and domestic pigs as well as between the red junglefowl and domestic chicken. The overall aim is to identify functionally important mutations that provide new insight into basic biology and that lead to practical applications in agriculture and human medicine.

John Doebley is a Professor of Genetics and a member of the Plant Breeding Faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Doebley holds a B.A. in Anthropology from West Chester State College (1974) and a Ph.D. in Botany from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1980). He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences USA (2002), a Fellow in the AAAS (1991), and a member of Phi Kappa Phi (1975) and Sigma Xi (1980). He has received the Gamma Sigma Delta's Award of Merit for Outstanding Service to Agriculture (1992) and the Kellet Mid-Career Award at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2000). In 2005, he served as President of the American Genetic Association. He has served a member of several editorial boards, advisor boards and panels. Doebley is a geneticist who studies how genes control changes in plant morphology during domestication with a focus on maize. In particular, he has studied the long-standing question of the nature of the genetic differences between maize and its ancestor, teosinte, and his laboratory has cloned and characterized two of the major genes that cause the visible differences between these two very different plants.
« Hide