Researchers have linked disease to mitochondrial mutations and physiological senescence to the cumulative effects of oxidative injury to mitochondria. In the laboratory we study the link between aging and mitochondrial DNA.

Mitochondrial DNA has been widely employed as an evolutionary marker to study the process of molecular evolution and to infer phylogeographic and phylogenetic patterns. We study the selective forces that influence the evolution of mitochondrial DNA. One particularly interesting force is the alpha proteobacteria Wolbachia.

Drosophila simulans is our organism of choice because it has three distinct mitochondrial haplogroups (siI, -II, and -III). The high interhaplogroup divergence allows us to test the role of the mitochondrial genotype. The low intrahaplogroup variation enables us to replicate our studies with independently collected flies.