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School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences

Dr Roman Arguello

Roman

Lecturer in Genetics, Genomics and Fundamental Cell Biology (T&R)

Email: r.arguello@qmul.ac.uk
Website: https://arguellolab.org/

Teaching

BIO319: Coding and Data Science

Research

Research Interests:

Research Topics:

Evolutionary genomics, sensory neurobiology, evo-devo, behavioural evolution

Our lab uses evolutionary/population genomic and neurobiology approaches to investigate the genetic and cellular changes underlying the diversification of sensory systems. These aims link with related topics in evolutionary biology such as the roles that local adaptation, gene flow, and demographic histories play in shaping genetic and phenotypic changes. 

 

Publications

Kafle, T., Grub, M., Sakagiannis, P., Nawrot, M. P., & Arguello, R. (n.d.). Fast and recurrent evolution of temperature preference among drosophilids. doi:10.1101/2024.03.15.585210

Takagi, S., Sancer, G., Abuin, L., Stupski, S. D., Arguello, J. R., Prieto-Godino, L. L., . . . Benton, R. (n.d.). Sensory neuron population expansion enhances odor tracking without sensitizing projection neurons. doi:10.1101/2023.09.15.556782

Bontonou, G., Saint-Leandre, B., Kafle, T., Tess, B., Hassan, A., Antonio Sánchez-Alcañiz, J., & Arguello, J. R. (2024). Evolution of chemosensory tissues and cells across ecologically diverse Drosophilids. Nature Communications, 15(1047). doi:10.1038/s41467-023-44558-4

Auer, T. O., Álvarez-Ocaña, R., Cruchet, S., Benton, R., & Arguello, J. R. (2022). Copy number changes in co-expressed odorant receptor genes enable selection for sensory differences in drosophilid species. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 6(9), 1343-1353. doi:10.1038/s41559-022-01830-y

Arguello, J. R., Abuin, L., Armida, J., Mika, K., Chai, P. C., & Benton, R. (n.d.). Targeted molecular profiling of rare olfactory sensory neurons identifies fate, wiring and functional determinants. eLife, 10, e63036. doi:10.7554/elife.63036

Thomas O. Auer, Mohammed A. Khallaf, Ana F. Silbering, Giovanna Zappia, Kaitlyn Ellis, Raquel Álvarez-Ocaña, J. Roman Arguello, Bill S. Hansson, Gregory S. X. E. Jefferis, Sophie J. C. Caron, Markus Knaden & Richard Benton (2020). Olfactory receptor and circuit evolution promote host specialization. Nature, 579(7799), 402-408. doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2073-7

Arguello, J. R., Laurent, S., & Clark, A. G. (2019). Demographic history of the human commensal Drosophila melanogaster. Genome Biology and Evolution, 11(3), evz022. doi:10.1093/gbe/evz022

Arguello, J. R., & Benton, R. (2017). Open questions: Tackling Darwin’s “instincts”: the genetic basis of behavioral evolution. BMC Biology, 15(1), 26. doi:10.1186/s12915-017-0369-3

Early, A. M., Arguello, J. R., Cardoso-Moreira, M., Gottipati, S., Grenier, J. K., & Clark, A. G. (2017). Survey of Global Genetic Diversity Within the Drosophila Immune System. Genetics, 205(1), 353-366. doi:10.1534/genetics.116.195016

Croset, V., Schleyer, M., Arguello, J. R., Gerber, B., & Benton, R. (n.d.). A molecular and neuronal basis for amino acid sensing in the Drosophila larva. Scientific Reports, 6(1), 34871. doi:10.1038/srep34871

Prieto-Godino, L. L., Rytz, R., Bargeton, B., Abuin, L., Arguello, J. R., Peraro, M. D., & Benton, R. (2016). Olfactory receptor pseudo-pseudogenes. Nature, 539(7627), 93-97. doi:10.1038/nature19824

Arguello, J. R., Cardoso-Moreira, M., Grenier, J. K., Gottipati, S., Clark, A. G., & Benton, R. (n.d.). Extensive local adaptation within the chemosensory system following Drosophila melanogaster’s global expansion. Nature Communications, 7(1), ncomms11855. doi:10.1038/ncomms11855

Cardoso-Moreira, M., Arguello, J. R., Gottipati, S., Harshman, L. G., Grenier, J. K., & Clark, A. G. (2016). Evidence for the fixation of gene duplications by positive selection in Drosophila. Genome Research, 26(6), 787-798. doi:10.1101/gr.199323.115

Grenier, J. K., Arguello, J. R., Moreira, M. C., Gottipati, S., Mohammed, J., Hackett, S. R., . . . Clark, A. G. (2015). Global Diversity Lines–A Five-Continent Reference Panel of Sequenced Drosophila melanogaster Strains. G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics, 5(4), 593-603. doi:10.1534/g3.114.015883

Arguello, J. R., Sellanes, C., Lou, Y. R., & Raguso, R. A. (n.d.). Can Yeast (S. cerevisiae) Metabolic Volatiles Provide Polymorphic Signaling?. PLOS ONE, 8(8), e70219. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0070219

Cardoso-Moreira, M., Arguello, J. R., & Clark, A. G. (2012). Mutation spectrum of Drosophila CNVs revealed by breakpoint sequencing. Genome Biology, 13(12), r119. doi:10.1186/gb-2012-13-12-r119

Arguello, J. R., & Connallon, T. (n.d.). Gene Duplication and Ectopic Gene Conversion in Drosophila. Genes, 2(1), 131-151. doi:10.3390/genes2010131

Arguello, J. R., Zhang, Y., Kado, T., Fan, C., Zhao, R., Innan, H., . . . Long, M. (2010). Recombination Yet Inefficient Selection along the Drosophila melanogaster Subgroup's Fourth Chromosome. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 27(4), 848-861. doi:10.1093/molbev/msp291

Yang, S., Arguello, J. R., Li, X., Ding, Y., Zhou, Q., Chen, Y., . . . Wang, W. (2008). Repetitive Element-Mediated Recombination as a Mechanism for New Gene Origination in Drosophila. PLOS Genetics, 4(1), e3. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.0040003

Clark, A. G., Eisen, M. B., Smith, D. R., Bergman, C. M., Oliver, B., Markow, T. A., . . . MacCallum, I. (2007). Evolution of genes and genomes on the Drosophila phylogeny. Nature, 450(7167), 203-218. doi:10.1038/nature06341

McBride, C. S., Arguello, J. R., & O'Meara, B. C. (2007). Five Drosophila Genomes Reveal Nonneutral Evolution and the Signature of Host Specialization in the Chemoreceptor Superfamily. Genetics, 177(3), 1395-1416. doi:10.1534/genetics.107.078683

Arguello, J. R., Chen, Y., Yang, S., Wang, W., & Long, M. (2006). Origination of an X-Linked Testes Chimeric Gene by Illegitimate Recombination in Drosophila. PLOS Genetics, 2(5), e77. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.0020077

HOFFMAN, E. A., KOLM, N., BERGLUND, A., ARGUELLO, J. R., & JONES, A. G. (2005). Genetic structure in the coral‐reef‐associated Banggai cardinalfish, Pterapogon kauderni. Molecular Ecology, 14(5), 1367-1375. doi:10.1111/j.1365-294x.2005.02538.x

Jones, A. G., Arguello, J. R., & Arnold, S. J. (2004). Molecular parentage analysis in experimental newt populations: the response of mating system measures to variation in the operational sex ratio.. The American Naturalist, 164(4), 444-456. doi:10.1086/423826

Jones, A. G., Arguello, J. R., & Arnold, S. J. (2002). Validation of Bateman's principles: a genetic study of sexual selection and mating patterns in the roughskinned newt. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 269(1509), 2533-2539. doi:10.1098/rspb.2002.2177

Supervision

Sarah Hume (starting fall 2024)

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