University
of California, Irvine
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
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| Research Interests |
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concept of the molecular clock has revolutionized evolutionary studies.
DNA and protein sequences thus can be used for reconstructing evolutionary
history and timing events of the past. How good is the clock? We are
investigating a number of genes and testing new models of rates of
gene evolution.
Another major research effort focuses on the population structure and evolution of parasitic protozoa, such as malaria and Chagas’. We have shown that the four species of Plasmodium that cause human malaria diverged many million years ago; they became human parasites independently, by lateral transfer from other hosts. However, the world populations of P. falciparum, the agent of malignant malaria, originated from a single individual only a few thousand years ago. We have shown that P. falciparum parasites are genetically virtually identical, except for the genes responding to the human immune system or to antimalarial drugs. A third area of investigation is the evolution of molecular adaptation. The main lines of research are: the evolution of gene regulatory regions, the molecular adaptation of duplicated genes, the evolution of pseudogenes, and the origin and evolution of introns. Additionally, I am interested in the philosophy of biology and
in bioethics, as well as in the relationships between science and
religion, including the teaching of evolution in the schools.
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Degrees |
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B.S., University of Madrid, Spain, 1955
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Honors and Awards |
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| 2003
Gold Medal, Stazione Zoologica Naples (Italy) 2001 U.S. National Medal of Science 2000 Gold Medal of the National Academy of Sciences of Italy 2000 William Procter Prize for Scientific Achievement from Sigma Xi 1998 Distinguished Scientist Award from SACNAS 1995 President's Award of the American Institute of Biological Sciences 1995 UCI Medal, University of California 1994 Gold Honorary Gregor Mendel Medal, Czech Academy of Sciences 1979 Medal of the College of France Doctor Honoris Causa: Universities of Athens (Greece); Bologna (Italy); Barcelona, Islas Baleares, Leon, Madrid, Valencia, and Vigo (Spain); Vladivostok (“Far East National University”), Russia; and Masaryk University (Brno, Czech Republic) Elected Member: U.S. National Academy of Sciences; American Academy of Arts and Sciences; American Philosophical Society Foreign Member: Russian Academy of Sciences; Royal Academy of Sciences of Spain; Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (Rome); Mexican Academy of Sciences 2003-2006 President Elect, President, and Past President, Sigma Xi, “The Scientific Research Society.”
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Current Graduate Students |
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Current Post-docs |
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Evgeniy Balakirev, Ph.D., Head, Genetics
Lab, Far Eastern State University, Vladivostok, Russia
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Recent Courses Taught |
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Bio 94, Introduction to the Diversity
of Life, Winter 1999
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Links |
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| UCI Faculty Profile | ||
Recent Papers |
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Balakirev, E.S. and F.J. Ayala. 2003. Pseudogenes: Are They “Junk” or Functional DNA? Annu. Rev. Genet. 37:123-151. M.J. Benton and F.J. Ayala. 2003. Dating the Tree of Life. Science 300:1698-1700. C.J. Cela-Conde and F.J. Ayala. 2003. Genera of the human lineage. PNAS 100:7684-7689. (Table 1 reprinted in PNAS 100:1033, 2003.) Tarrio, R., F. Rodriguez-Trelles, and F.J. Ayala. 2003. A new Drosophila spliceosomal intron position is common in plants. PNAS 100:6580-6583. Ayala, F.J. 2003. Intelligent Design: The Original Version. Theology and Science 1:9-32. Sáez, A.G., A. Tatarenkov, E. Barrio, N.H. Becerra, and F.J. Ayala. 2003. Patterns of DNA sequence polymorphism at Sod vicinities in Drosophila melanogaster: Unraveling the footprint of a recent selective sweep. PNAS 100:1793-1798. Žurovcová, M. and F.J. Ayala. 2002. Polymorphism Patterns in Two Tightly Linked Developmental Genes, Idgf1 and Idgf3, of Drosophila melanogaster. Genetics 162:177-188. Tibayrenc, M. and F.J. Ayala. 2002. The clonal theory of parasitic protozoa: 12 years on. TRENDS in Parasitology 18:405-410. Rodriguez-Trelles, F., R. Tarrio, and F.J. Ayala. 2002. A methodological bias toward overestimation of molecular evolutionary time scales. PNAS 99:8112-8115. Machado, C.A. and F.J. Ayala. 2002. Sequence variation in the dihydrofolate reductase-thymidylate synthase (DHFR-TS) and trypanothione reductase (TR) genes of Trypanosoma cruzi. Molecular & Biochemical Parasitology 121:33-47. Rodriguez-Trelles, F., R. Tarrio, and
F.J. Ayala. 2001. Erratic overdispersion of three molecular clocks:
GPDH, SOD, and XDH. PNAS 98:11405-11410.
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