Agneesh Barua

Abstract Molecular convergence, where specific non-synonymous changes in protein-coding genes lead to identical amino acid substitutions across multiple lineages, provides strong evidence of adaptive evolution. Detecting this signal across diverse taxa can reveal broad evolutionary mechanisms that may not be apparent when studying individual lineages. In this study, we search for convergent substitutions in the most speciose group of vertebrates, teleost fishes.

Agneesh Barua was a recipient of the SMBE Graduate Student Excellence Award by the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution and the Peter Gruss Doctoral Dissertation Excellence Award by the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology. He received an honorable mention for the Birnstiel Award of the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (Austria). Agneesh was also awarded an HFSP Long-Term Fellowship by the Human Frontier Science Program.

Abstract Teleosts are the most diverse group of vertebrates on earth. Their diversity is a testament to the combined effects of genetic, developmental, and evolutionary forces. However, disentangling the interactions between these forces is challenging due to the complexity of the genotype-phenotype relationship and the masking of adaptive genetic signals by genetic noise.