Mirko Martini

PhD Student

Department of Biological, Geological, and Environmental Sciences

Teaching tutor

Department of Biological, Geological, and Environmental Sciences

Academic discipline: BIO/05 Zoology

Research

Keywords: Longevity Comparative Genomics Genome Architecture Molecular Evolution Mito-Nuclear Coevolution

Longevity. My interest lies in studying the evolution of genetic mechanisms related to longevity. Using a comparative genomics approach, I explore the hypothesis that animals with similar lifespans share a genetic toolbox that allows them to live exceptionally long or short lives. In my Master's degree project, I studied birds as my animal model because of their intrinsic characteristic of being longer-lived than any mammal of the same size. After developing an efficient bioinformatic pipeline, I extended my interest to mammals, opening the dataset also to non-coding sequences.
Mitonuclear Coevolution. It is the main topic of my PhD project. Mitochondrial and nuclear genomes began their cohabitation inside the same cell approximately 2 billion years ago, and their evolution has been intertwined since then. Their most well-known synergistic activity is energy production through oxidative phosphorylation. Again, I'm focusing on birds as my animal model, this time because of their intense metabolism, which is mainly linked to their flight ability. Starting from the pure mitonuclear coevolution in these animals, my goal is to focus on the presence of a molecular signal that links coevolution intensity and some ornamental traits of birds, mainly their colouration.
Evoluzione della socialità. Due to my interest in both trait evolution and social insects, particularly ants, I also study the evolution of sociality, looking for a genomic toolkit needed to unlock and develop it. In this case, my model organisms are insects of the Hymenoptera class. Again, I apply a convergent evolution framework, looking for genes that support such a trait.

Mirko Martini

Research

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