Bio: Hongxin Xie (postdoc)

Hongxin Xie (2023 –) is a postdoc working on the evolution of parity modes in the common lizard model using populations of different parity modes and hybrid crosses.

 

 

My general interest is using various omic tools to study the evolution, adaptation and conservation of squamate reptiles. Squamates have great diversity of some interesting traits, such as parity modes (egg-laying or live-birth), sex determination systems (gene-dependant or temperature dependant), and tail regeneration ability (with or without). Specifically, squamates have multiple origins of viviparity and some lineages have possible reversions from viviparity to oviparity. I am interested in using genomic methods to identify the genetic mechanisms underlying the evolution of viviparity. It would be a good chance to show how evolutionary innovations occur.

    I did my PhD in at Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, mainly working on the evolutionary and conservation genomics of the Chinese crocodile lizard (Shinisaurus crocodilurus). I used population genomic methods to study the genetic diversity, demographic history, inbreeding, and genetic purging in natural populations of the endangered crocodile lizards. I also explored how gene loss might have contributed to eggshell reduction in viviparous squamates. I am now conducting postdoctoral research in the Elmer lab, focusing on the genetic mechanisms of parity-mode evolution in the common lizards (Zootoca vivipara).

 

Postdoctoral research assistant (University of Glasgow) 2023.1 –

PhD student (Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences) 2017 – 2022

BSc in Biological Sciences (Nanjing University) 2013 – 2017

 

Researchgate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Hongxin-Xie

 





Popular posts from this blog

Congratulations to Dr Madeleine Carruthers!

Image
A big congratulations to Madeleine for a successful PhD viva on her project on ecological transcriptomics and adaptive divergences in salmonid fishes! And here she is celebrating with a delicious charr cake. (tasted better than that sounds)
Read more

NEW PAPER: Genomics of head and body shape parallelism in Arctic charr

Image
Published today as free open access in Molecular Ecology :  Genomic underpinnings of head and body shape in Arctic charr ecomorph pairs Sam Fenton, Arne Jacobs, Colin Bean, Colin Adams & Kathryn Elmer The appearance of repeated phenotypes across replicates in similar environments have been described as examples of parallel evolution. However, the genomic bases of these similar phenotypes is rarely elucidated and so whether the same genomic pathways are used to achieve these similar phenotypes across replicates is rarely known. Here we used the repeated divergence of benthivorous-planktivorous ecomorph pairs of Arctic charr to investigate the genomic underpinnings of head and body shape morphology across replicates. We found that only a small number of associated SNPs for each phenotype were shared across all four ecomorph pairs we investigated with selection on associated SNPs varying considerably across replicates. Overall, these results suggest that the genomic underpinnings ...
Read more