Every eukaryotic cell runs on two genomes, not one. The nuclear genome, biparentally inherited and recombining each generation, encodes the vast majority of an organism’s genes. A second, much smaller genome resides in the mitochondria, inherited strictly uniparentally in most of the animal kingdom.
These two genomes must build shared machinery together. The oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) system, which underlies cellular ATP production, is assembled from subunits encoded by both the mitochondrial and nuclear genomes, requiring precise coordination of replication, transcription, and translation across two physically and evolutionarily distinct compartments. Maintaining this coordination requires continuous cytonuclear coevolution to preserve compatibility across generations.
This relationship, what we term mitonuclear interaction, sits at the centre of my lab’s research. It underpins developmental rate and energetics, metabolic efficiency, thermal tolerance, and the trajectory of ageing.
Themes
Mitonuclear interaction sits at the centre of my research: the mitochondrial and nuclear genomes have coevolved since the dawn of eukaryotic life, and must stay compatible despite very different modes of inheritance. Using a large Drosophila mitonuclear panel, we test for coadaptation, search for signatures of Mother’s Curse, and examine how genome combinations shape thermal performance, developmental energetics, coexpression, and the pace of ageing. This work is done partly in collaboration with Nick Lane.
We study how male and female flies differ in metabolic strategies. Despite sharing almost the same genome, the sexes perform very different reproductive roles, and this tension plays out partly through diet: males and females often have distinct nutritional optima. We’re testing whether flies’ own dietary choices actually match this optimum, and identifying candidate genes involved in diet-related decision-making.
We work on mitonuclear interactions and metabolic effects across a wide range of species, from stalked-eye flies, bees, and butterflies, through to humans; where population admixture offers a natural parallel to the genome mismatches we study experimentally. Current collaborations include: the metabolic cost of meiotic drive (with A. Pomiankowski); maternal diet effects on butterfly metabolism (J. Bridle & B. Zanco); mitonuclear genomics in human admixed populations (A. Andrés).