Animal population genomics Laboratory

Popolazioni Animali

Philogeographic studies based on the analysis of the entire mitogenome of some domestic animals (cattle, horses, goats and sheep) or invasive (tiger mosquito) or commensals (swallow) allow not only the reconstruction of the evolutionary history of the animal species, but can provide new information on the development of human cultures that have interacted or interact with these species. In the case of cattle, for example, after the domestication of the aurochs, the spread of taurine and indicine forms depended completely on humans, generating parallel genetic paths between the two species. With the extension of these studies to the nuclear genome, not only will further details be defined regarding the parallel human-animal genetic histories, but the genes selected following the interaction with our species will be identified.

 

Ways and times of diffusion of domestic species

Referents: Prof. Alessandro Achilli, Prof. Luca Ferretti, Prof. Antonio Torroni

Co-workers: Ana Chero Osorio (PhD student); Nicola Rambaldi Migliore (post-doc)

Collaborations:

  • Univ. Perugia (Prof. H. Lancioni);
  • Univ. Cattolica Piacenza (Prof. P. Ajmone Marsan & Dr. L. Colli)

 

Ways and times of diffusion of commensal or invasive species

Referents: Prof. Antonio Torroni, Prof. Anna Olivieri

Co-workers: Vincenzo Agostini (PhD student)

Collaborations:

  • Univ. Milano (Prof. L. Gianfranceschi);
  • The Rockefeller University (Dr. Giulio Formenti);
  • Univ. Pavia (Prof. G. Gasperi, Prof. A. R. Malacrida, & Prof. L. Gomulski).