Roman Yukilevich

Publications

Recent and Selected Publications

Student authors italicized

• Bolnick, D.I, A. K. Hund, P. Nosil, F. Peng, M. Ravinet, S. Stankowski, S. Subramanian, J. Wolf, and R. Yukilevich. (In Press). A multivariate view of the speciation continuum. Evolution.
• Yukilevich, R. (In Press). Female preferences in the Drosophila athabasca complex reveal divergent closed functions, epistasis, and segregation of veiled preference alleles. Evolution.
• Yukilevich, R., and J.T. LaGraff. (In Press). Divergence of a speciation trait through artificial selection; insights into constraints, byproduct effects, and sexual isolation. Journal of Evolutionary Biology.
• Yukilevich, R., & Aoki, F. (2022). Evolution of choosiness dictates whether search costs of mate choice enhance speciation by sexual selection. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 00, 1–15
• Yukilevich, R., 2021. Reproductive character displacement drives diversification of male courtship songs in Drosophila. American Naturalist.
• Yukilevich, R., and E. K. Peterson. (2019) Evolution of male and female mating preferences in Drosophila speciation. Evolution 73-9: 1759–1773.
• Yukilevich, R., Maroja, L.S., Nguyen, K., Hussain, S. and Kumaran, P. (2018) Rapid sexual and genomic isolation in sympatric Drosophila without reproductive character displacement. Ecology and Evolution 8(5):2852-2867.
• Yukilevich, R., T. Harvey, S. Nguyen, J. Kehlbeck, and A. Park. (2016) The search for causal traits of speciation: Divergent female mate preferences target male courtship song, not pheromones, in Drosophila athabasca species complex. Evolution 70(3):526-542.
• Yukilevich, R. (2012) Asymmetrical patterns of speciation uniquely support reinforcement in Drosophila. Evolution 66(5): 1430-1446.

Additional Research Description

Biologists typically define species based on the criteria of reproductive isolation. Such isolation prevents gene flow between species and thus makes them genetically and phenotypically distinct over time. My goal is to understand how this happens. To achieve this, I study natural populations that have recently undergone divergence, allows us to infer how speciation occurred in nature in the past.

I have generally used the model organism fruit flies (Drosophila) to study the process of speciation. I am interested in studying how different populations of the same species evolve sexual or behavioral isolation, where individuals show preference for mating with their own type. This includes studying geographical variation in both male sexual cues and female mating preferences between populations and sexual selection within populations. Here at Union, my recent focus has been on a young local forest fruit fly species complex (Drosophila athabasca). Students and I study sexual and ecological traits and behaviors of individuals in the field and in the lab across populations and species and perform artificial selection and other evolution experiments in the lab. In addition, I have used population genetics to understand gene flow patterns and evolutionary history of these speciation events. I have also developed new theoretical models of speciation and have compiled data across many studies to study broad patterns of evolution across many organisms.

You can find more information on this project at: www.drosophila-speciation-patterns.com.