Melania Cristescu

Assistant Professor

Phone: 519-253-3000 ext. 3763
Office: GLIER Rm 211
E-mail me

Education:
Ph.D. University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada
M.Sc. Ovidius University, Constanta, Romania

Past Academic Positions:

• NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA

Research Interests:

Many invasive aquatic species are undergoing rapid range expansions accompanied by dramatic habitat transitions (e.g. marine to freshwater, ephemeral ponds to permanent lakes). These invasive taxa present outstanding opportunities to study the genetic mechanisms underlying the adaptive responses of organisms to novel environments and stresses.

My study organisms involve several species of Ponto-Caspian crustaceans (endemic to the Black and Caspian Seas) that have recently colonized the Great Lakes, invasive tunicates, as well as the waterflea Daphnia - an emerging model system for ecological genomics.

We employ phylogenetic approaches to contrast historical and contemporary patterns of invasion among Ponto-Caspian crustaceans and use genomic tools for Daphnia pulex to study the genetic mechanisms underlying traits involved in adaptation to new environments.

Recent and Selected Publications :

Cristescu ME, Innes DJ, Stillman JH and TJ Crease 2008. D- and L-lactate dehydrogenases during invertebrate evolution. BMC Evol. Biol. 8: 268.

Durbin A, Hebert PDN and ME Cristescu 2008. Comparative phylogeography of marine cladocerans: evidence for human mediated invasions. Marine Biology, 155: 1-10.

Sayfert AL, Cristescu ME, Thomas KW, Frisse L, Schaack S and M Lynch 2008. The rate and spectrum of microsatellite mutation in Caenorhabditis elegance and Daphnia pulex. Genetics, 178: 2113-2121.

Omilian A, Cristescu ME, Dudycha J and M Lynch 2006. Ameiotic recombination in asexual lineages of Daphnia. Proc. Nat. Acad. Scie. USA, 103: 18638-18643.

Cristescu ME, Colbourne JK, Radivojac J, and M Lynch 2006. A microsatellite-based genetic linkage map for Daphnia pulex: On the prospect of crustacean genomics. Genomics, 88: 415-430.

 Current Graduate Students:

• Dan Bock (M.Sc. candidate – GLIER)
• Anna Constantin (M.Sc. candidate – GLIER)
• Sen Xu (Ph.D. candidate – GLIER)
• Dr. Aibin Zhan (Post Doctoral Fellow - GLIER)