About German
I am a postdoctoral researcher working with Ryan Bracewell at Indiana University in the department of Biology. I earned my PhD in the department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology at the University of California, Riverside with my dissertation advisor, Alan Brelsford. I obtained my Bachelor of Science in Biotechnology from Cal Poly Pomona.
As an evolutionary biologist, I am fundamentally interested in how genome evolution can maintain diverging traits. I have explored this question through the lens of genomic structural variation. Structural variation can play a key role in maintaining differences between alternative phenotypes, such as phenotypic morphs and life history strategies. Genomic regions containing two or more linked alleles that determine discrete traits and are under linkage such that they are inherited as single Mendelian units are often referred to as “supergenes.” Oftentimes, supergenes are inversions, but other structural variants and ploidy differences, such as hemizygosity, fall under the supergene umbrella. Sex chromosomes are considered a special case of a supergene and much of the theoretical literature for supergene evolution builds on what we understand about sex chromosome evolution.
In my PhD, I worked with Formica ants to answer questions pertaining to the genetics underlying colony sex ratio and social organization. Currently, I am working to understand how and why different neo-sex chromosomes are maintained in the mountain pine beetle. You can learn more about the specifics of ongoing projects and past works in the sex chromosome evolution and the evolution of complex traits tabs. If any of my past or current work seems interesting to you, I am always happy to chat! You can reach me at glaguna [at] iu [dot] edu.