Postdoctoral Researcher

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Dr. Kirtsy Worley

Dr. Kirsty Worley

Details

Name: Dr. Kirsty Worley
Position: Postdoctoral researcher
Email: kirsty.worley@zoo.ox.ac.uk

Autobiography

I graduated in Zoology from the University of Edinburgh in 2001 before working as a research technician in the Sheffield molecular genetics facility. I remained at Sheffield for a PhD concentrating on the evolutionary genetics of neutral and immune genes in wild sheep populations, which I obtained in 2005. As a research associate, again at Sheffield, I was involved in a project examining competitive fertilisation in fowl until 2006. I am currently employed as a NERC funded post-doc between the Universities of Oxford and East Anglia examining the role of the major histocompatibility complex on sexual selection using fowl as an avian model.

Research Activities

I have broad interests within the field of evolutionary and ecological genetics, with particular interest in utilising both neutral and functional genes to address questions of intra- and inter-species interactions in natural populations. This involves the use of microsatellite genotyping and gene sequencing to relate individual, population, and species-wide genetic variability to evolutionary processes. My current research involves investigating a role for the MHC region (a vital component of the vertebrate immune response) in sexual selection, both pre- and post-copulation in a population of jungle fowl Gallus gallus.

Selected Recent Papers

Mainguy, J., Worley, K., Côté, S.D. & Coltman, D.W. (in press) Low MHC DRB class II diversity in the mountain goat: past bottlenecks and possible role of pathogens and parasites. Conservation Genetics

Worley, K., Carey, J., Veitch, A. & Coltman, D.W. 2006. Detecting the signature of selection on immune genes in highly structured populations of wild sheep Ovis dalli. Molecular Ecology 15, 623-637. | Read abstract/paper online

Loehr, J., Worley, K., Grapputo, A., Carey, J., Veitch, A. & Coltman, D.W. 2006. Evidence for cryptic glacial refugia from North American mountain sheep mitochondrial DNA. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 19, 419-430. | Read abstract/paper online

Mainguy, J., Llewellyn, A.S., Worley, K., Côté, S.D. & Coltman, D.W. 2005. Characterization of 29 polymorphic artiodactyl microsatellite markers for the mountain goat Oreamnos americanus. Molecular Ecology Notes 5, 809-811. | Read abstract/paper online

Lowe, A.J., Hicks, B.J., Worley, K., Ennos, R.A., Morman, J.D., Stone, G. & Watt, A.D. 2005. Genetic differentiation in Scottish populations of the pine beauty moth Panolis flammea (Lepidoptera : Noctuidae). Bulletin of Entomological Research 95, 517-526. | Read abstract/paper online

Worley, K., Strobeck, C., Arthur, S., Carey, J., Schwantje, H., Veitch, A. & Coltman, D.W. 2004. Population genetic structure of North American thinhorn sheep Ovis dalli. Molecular Ecology 13, 2545-2556.