Ryan Biscocho

My main research interests lie where evolutionary theory and genomics intersect, though I have a wide range of interests including animal behaviour, sensory ecology and food security. More specifically, I am interested in how genome evolution relates to phenotypic evolution: how do changes, especially macro-mutational changes, at the genome level affect the phenotype of an organism and how can this relate to adaptation?

My PhD project aims to look at the impacts of transposable elements (TEs) in natural and artificial selection. The two focal points of my research will be to explore TE contribution to a) body plan diversity using mollusc genomes and b) livestock productivity using caprine and camelid genomes. The former aims to explore how TEs may have been influential in generating the morphological diversity seen in molluscs and the latter aims to investigate how TEs affect important production traits and how this may be manipulated for improving food security. Previous research includes the study of female aggression in Drosophila (undergraduate research project, University of Oxford) and the study of wild grass introgressions in wheat (Masters by Research project, University of Bristol).