hi my name is Dr Lori Stevenson and I'm an assistant professor in biological sciences at Auburn University in addition to teaching I also run a research lab here on campus my research is in the area of evolutionary genomics with a focus on speciation but what does that mean speciation is the process by which new lineages are generated or when a group of organisms splits into two one of the biggest puzzles in the natural world is why do we see so much diversity in organisms on Earth my work to understand speciation at a genetic level ultimately inform strategies to preserve the biodiversity we have here on our planet when we think about the origins of biodiversity two major genetic processes come to mind mutation and recombination my work focuses on the latter myotic recombination which happens during reproductive cell division when two cells divide to make gametes like sperm and eggs this is basically why you have a mix of traits from both your mom and your dad more broadly I'm interested in the impact of environmental stress on recombination to shape genetic variation in natural populations for this work I experimentally manipulate fruit flies in my lab under different environmental conditions and then compare the resulting recombination rates so the study of speciation is also about uncovering evolutionary forces that drive that initial formation of a new species for this work my lab uses whole genome sequences and computational tools to resolve the evolutionary history of closely Rel ated groups of organisms this work uses both fruit flies but also non-human primates or monkeys basically anything that eats a banana to examine how genetic variation in natural populations have been shaped by evolutionary processes such as hybridization and natural [Music] selection