Pritzker Curator of Biosystematics; Associate Curator and Head, Insects, Department of Zoology, Field Museum.

Education:

B.Sc. (Hons.), Zoology, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, 1982.
M.Sc./DIC., Entomology, Imperial College, London, England, 1986.
Ph.D., Entomology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, 1991.

Awards:

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) Postdoctoral Fellow, Entomology, 1991-1993.
National Health and Medical Research Council C. J. Martin Postdoctoral Fellow. University of Chicago and CSIRO, 1993-1995.

Research Interests:

Host-parasite co-evolution and speciation.

Current Research:

The goal of my research is to understand the interactions between behavioral, morphological, and molecular evolution. My study program investigates the molecular variation within- and among- mitochondrial and nuclear loci in the Drosophila melanogaster subgroup and strains of Wolbachia pipientis that these species harbor. It is now well established that mtDNA is an endosymbiont while Wolbachia is an alpha proteobacteria. Currently, I am investigating the uncoupling of evolutionary rates in the mtDNA of D. simulans. As of September 1998 I have sequenced the complete mtDNA genomes (excluding the A+T rich region) of twenty-three isofemale lines. I will sequence two more genomes in the forthcoming months to test alternative models of mitochondrial evolution.

This project involves studies involving Drosophila mtDNA (sequencing, testing for recombination, and paternal leakage) and nDNA (rates of evolution on different chromosomes) and their interaction (constructing lines with different mtDNA and nDNA combinations). It will also include studies of Wolbachia (investigation of cytoplasmic incompatibility, and the potential for horizontal transfer) and the interaction of Drosophila with Wolbachia (behavioral, selection and life history studies).

Selected Publications:

1998. (with M.K. Thayer, A.F. Newton and E.R. Grismer) Data sets, partitions and characters: Philosophies and procedures for analyzing multiple data sets. Syst. Biol. 47: 367-396.

1998. Evolutionary rate variation within the mitochondrial DNA of Drosophila simulans. Current Topics of Molecular Evolution. Proceedings of the 1997 US/ Germany/ Japan TriNational Workshop on Molecular Evolution, Munich, Germany. pp 25-36.

1996. (with N.J. Galway) Assessing evolutionary hypotheses generated from mitochondrial DNA: inferences from Drosophila. In: Floyd, R.B., Sheppard A.W. and DeBarro P.J. (eds) Frontiers of Population Ecology. CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Australia pp. 473-483.

1996. (with J. Hatzidakis, T.L. Karr and M. Kreitman) Reduced variation in Drosophila simulans mitochondrial DNA. Genetics 144: 1519-1528.

1995. (with M. Kreitman) Is mitochondrial DNA a strictly neutral marker? TREE 10: 485-488.

Current Position:

www.babs.unsw.edu.au/staff_directory/ballardw.html