Research

Adaptation Interface Lab is interested in understanding the responses of organisms to changing environments i.e. warming. Our approach is from ‘macrophysiology to molecules’. The focus is on the interaction between phenotypic plasticity and adaptation, and the relationship between underlying physiological and molecular mechanisms. Ecological changes drive evolution which acts on organism’s physiology and thereby fitness. The ecological conditions are never stable, and organisms must cope with varying conditions i.e. physiological performance or some form of regulation. We do it by either manipulating organisms or their environments. We also make use of experimental evolution to study how physiological systems function and evolve under defined conditions. The combined approach we follow helps us understand ecological patterns and processes, survival in and adaptation to a changing world.

Focus: Cuticle and the Anthropocene

Ongoing Projects:

1. Evolution of cuticular hydrocarbon (CHCs in insects and plants).

2. Trade-offs in surface traits (pigmentation and CHCs).

3. Ecology and evolution of structural colours (biophysics).

4. Molecular characterization of thermal preference (molecular underpinnings).

5. Heat-associated body water loss and its impact on physiology and behaviour (metabolomics).

6. Life of a cold specialist in a warming world (de-novo genomics and candidate gene approaches).

7. Molecular characterization of invasiveness (pest insects).

8. Directional selection of fitness-related traits (drought).

9. Climate and plants (Cotton).

10. Vectors, climate, and disease (mosquitoes)

Our Approach: 'macrophysiology to molecules'  

Adaptation Interface Lab also hosts a resource on Indian Drosophila Ecology & Evolution (a window to Indian Drosophila clines DrosoCline). The research findings associated with this long-term study are regularly updated on the following web resource:

​DrosoCline

Lab, team, and collaborators