Academic focus: Trait evolution, genomics and phylogenetics
Research summary: I study why and how phenotypic traits evolve in insects. I focus on traits that often differ between the sexes, such as color patterns, and try to understand how behavioral interactions between the sexes shape the evolutionary trajectories of sex differences. I also interrogate the genetic mechanisms behind the development of sex-specific traits and examine what happens to genomes in cases where ancestral sex differences have been reverted during the course of evolution. My work aims to bridge the processes that drive trait evolution, at the levels of genomes and populations, to the patterns of trait diversity that we see across species.
What do you like to do when you’re not working?
Play hide and seek with my toddler.
What are three adjectives people might use to describe you?
Compassionate, diligent and resilient
What brought you to Cornell CALS?
CALS hosts an incredible richness of biological research across its many departments. It is inspiring to see how this multitude of perspectives and approaches comes together in an environment that fosters collaboration, creativity and interdisciplinary inquiry. I’m just thrilled to be surrounded by so many people who think deeply and differently about fundamental questions in biology.
What do you think is important for people to understand about your field?
There is a vast diversity of evolutionary outcomes when it comes to the extent and direction of sex differences in animals. This expansive diversity can coexist with some degree of predictability — both are compatible with evolutionary theory. Theory predicts and we often observe repeatable differences between females and males, spanning morphological, behavioral and life-history traits. Understanding the processes that create these patterns is just as fascinating as understanding the processes that break them.
Why did you feel inspired to pursue a career in this field?
I was fiercely drawn to evolutionary biology as an undergraduate student. How did organisms come to be the way they are? Why do populations or individuals within populations differ in some of their traits but not others? These questions moved into my head when I first encountered evolution and have been living rent free ever since.
What’s the most surprising/interesting thing you’ve discovered about Cornell and/or Ithaca so far?
The furry creature I saw the other day running around on campus was not a cat — it was a woodchuck!
If you had unlimited grant funding, what major problem in your field would you want to solve?
The complex relationships between genotypes and phenotypes, the genotype-to-phenotype map, are one of the most challenging frontiers in evolutionary biology. The genotype-to-phenotype map shapes the course of phenotypic evolution while being itself the product of prior evolutionary change. With unlimited funding, I’d develop multiple study systems to scrutinize this map in groups of insects that are not traditional laboratory models, but pose remarkable examples of phenotypic diversity, convergence and constraint. I believe that untangling the structure of these genotype-to-phenotype maps is essential for understanding how insects acquired their unique traits and how they might continue to evolve in the Anthropocene.
Learn more about Beatriz from her CALS profile.
