Melania Cristescu

Associate Professor

Phone: 519-253-3000 ext. 3763
Office: GLIER Rm 211
email: Melania Cristescu

LAB WEBSITE

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

Millette KL, Xu S, Witt JDS and ME Cristescu. Pleistgocene-driven diversification in freshwater zooplankton: Genetic patterns of refugial isolation and postglacial re-colonization in Leptodora kindtii. Limnology and Oceanography, in press.

Bock DG, Zhan A, MacIsaac HJ and ME Cristescu 2011. Looking at both sides of the invasion: patterns of colonization in the violet tunicate Botrylloides violaceus. Molecular Ecology, 20, 503-516.

Xu S, Omilian A and ME Cristescu 2011. High rate of large-scale hemizygous deletions in asexually propagating Daphnia: Implications for the evolution of sex. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 28, 335-342.

Cristescu ME, Adamowicz SJ, Vaillant J and GD Haffner 2010. Ancient lakes revisited: from the geography to the genetics of speciation. Molecular Ecology, 19, 4837-4851.

Lejeusne C, Bock D, MacIsaac HJ, Therriault TW and ME Cristescu  2010. Comparative phylogeography of colonial tunicates reveals contrasting patterns of invasion history in North America. Biological Invasions, doi:10.1007/s10530-010-9859-8.

Xu S, PDN Hebert, AA Kotov and ME Cristescu 2009. The non-cosmopolitanism paradigm of freshwater zooplankton: Insights from the global phylogeography of the predatory cladoceran Polyphemus pediculus (Crustacea, Onychopoda). Molecular Ecology, 18: 5161-5179.

Cristescu ME and EE Egbosimba 2009. Evolutionary history of D-lactate dehydrogenases: a phylogenomic perspective on functional diversity in the Fad binding oxidoreductase type 4 family. Journal of Molecular Evolution, 69: 276-287.

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

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

CURRENT UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS

• Karly Soulliere
• David Persall
• Steven Injic