Schärer Group
Evolutionary Biology
Zoological Institute
University of Basel
Vesalgasse 1
CH-4051 Basel
Switzerland

Santhosh Santhosh

email: santhosh.s-at-unibas.ch

I am a PhD student in the Schärer group. I am interested in the evolutionary processes of sexual selection and sexual conflict.

Current research

For my PhD, I am interested in the different aspects of sexual selection in simultaneous hermaphrodites. My research focuses on the underlying mechanisms involved in post-copulatory sexual selection – sperm competition and cryptic female choice – in the reciprocally-mating simultaneous hermaphrodite species, Macrostomum lignano. Using resources such as transgenic and inbred lines available in this species, I conduct experiments attempting to understand the roles of crucial post-copulatory sexual traits and behaviours in sexual selection, and to test theories of sexual selection in a hermaphroditic sexual system.  

Past research

For my M.Sc. thesis, I investigated the importance of the developmental environment in populations of Drosophila melanogaster evolving under differential levels of intersexual conflict. I observed a sex-specific response to larval crowding in reproductive fitness with females being unaffected, while males suffered a reduction in reproductive fitness. I also showed that an increase in the larval density during development had a detrimental effect on the life-history traits irrespective of the evolutionary history of sexual conflict.
During my undergraduate years, I worked on projects studying the different aspects of the evolution of dispersal mechanisms using experimentally evolved populations of Drosophila melanogaster selected for higher dispersal. We studied the behavioural responses of the populations selected for dispersal in response to environmental stresses. We showed that the selection for dispersal enables resistance against environmental stresses in Drosophila melanogaster.

Curriculum vitae

2020-now PhD at the Zoological Institute, University of Basel, Switzerland
2019-2020 MS thesis work in the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Mohali
2015-2020 BS-MS in Biology from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Pune

Publications

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