Chuanxin Yu
PhD Student
Curriculum Vitae
| July 2024 | PhD. Student. Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Title: The origin and evolutionary history of male chimerism in yellow crazy ants Supervisors: Dr. Hugo Darras |
| 2017 - 2023 | Master of Science in Genetics, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Thesis Title: “Molecular basis of the adaptive evolution of species of Nanorana on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.” Supervisors: Prof. Jing Che |
| 2013 - 2017 | Bachelor of Science in Biotechnology, Qinghai University Thesis Title:” Phylogeny and genealogical geography of Saxifrage.” Supervisor: Prof. Zhanling Xie, Prof. Qingbo Gao |
Research Interests
I am interested in individuals in groups, not only limited to the diversity of individual phenotypes (the origins of these traits), but also in understanding whether living in groups alters the traits of organisms (the genetic mechanisms of these traits). In particular, I find ants, which are truly social species, fascinating and believe that the study of them can yield intriguing insights.
PhD Project
In my PhD project, I aim to investigate the origin of male chimerism in yellow crazy ants. In recent study on the invasive yellow crazy ant, Anoplolepis gracilipes, males are all chimeras of two divergent lineages, R and W. This kind of male may originate from a single fertilization event, the parental nuclei skip syngamy and divide separately within a single egg. Such a mechanism has never been reported in other species, studying the origins of male chimeras in A. gracilipes will help to understand the complexity of reproductive practices.
I will investigate the phylogeographic distribution of chimerism across the putative native range of the species and determine the phylogenetic origin of this reproductive strategy. Next, I will delve into the genetic factors leading to chimerism and assess the roles of the R and W lineages in creating these chimeras. For this, we intend to conduct crossbreeding experiments and compare the genomes and transcriptomes of the R and W lineages.
Publications
Wei Gao#, Chuan-Xin Yu#, Wei-Wei Zhou#, Bao-Lin Zhang., ... Ya-Ping Zhang*, Jing Che*, Species Persistence with Hybridization in Toad-Headed Lizards Driven by Divergent Selection and Low Recombination, Molecular Biology and Evolution, Volume 39, Issue 4, April 2022
Contact
Institute of Organismic and Molecular Evolution
Chuanxin Yu
Hanns-Dieter-Hüsch-Weg 15
01.401
5518 Mainz
Tel.: +49 6131 39 28564
Fax: +49 6131 39 27850
Deutschland