DEREK A. ROFF
Professor of Biology
Office 3352 Spieth Hall
Phone (951) 827-2437
E-mail: derek.roff@ucr.edu
Degree:
Ph. D., University of British Columbia
Dr. Roff is an evolutionary population ecologist with wide-ranging interests
in population and quantitative genetics, life-history, and the importance of
trade-offs in shaping life history evolution. His work is both theoretical
and empirical, and he has studied organisms ranging from seals, birds and fish
to fruit flies and planktonic crustaceans. Much of his current research focuses
on insects (especially the importance of trade-offs in determining the evolution
of wing dimorphism in various species of crickets) as model systems.
In evolutionary biology a trade-off between two traits is said to occur when
an increase in fitness due to a change in one trait is opposed by a decrease
in fitness due to a concomitant change in the second trait. The belief that evolutionary
change is modulated and constrained by such trade-offs is a central pillar of
evolutionary thought. The existence of trade-offs is not disputed, but there
is still relatively little understanding of how trade-offs evolve, or indeed
if they can evolve. In collaboration with Dr. Daphne Fairbairn, I am testing
hypotheses concerning the evolution of the trade-off between flight capability
and reproductive
traits in the Sand cricket, Gryllus firmus.
This project stems from our previous analysis of the evolution of trade-offs
in Gryllus firmus (Roff, Mostowy & Fairbairn, 2002; Roff, Crnokrak &.
Fairbairn, 2003). These analyses examined the evolution of trade-offs by testing
predictions using geographic variation in G. firmus. We are now directly testing
these predictions by artificial selection. Specifically we are testing the prediction
that the trade-off will shift in a manner consistent with quantitative genetic
theory. Additionally we are investigating the physiological, behavioral and phenological
changes that permit the response to selection. The proposed program of research
has broad implications for evolutionary biology, providing the first, rigorous,
quantitative test of the theoretical model for trade-off evolution, as well as
a general test of the utility of quantitative genetic theory in predicting multivariate
response to selection.
Dr. Roff comes to us from a faculty position at McGill University, Canada. He
began his work at UCR in July 2001 and participates in the Evolutionary
Biology graduate track as well as the Intercampus
Research
Program
on Experimental Evolution (UCIRPEE).
Representative publications:
- Roff, D.A. 1992. The Evolution of Life Histories: Theory and Analysis. Chapman and Hall, New York.
- Roff, D.A. 1994. Habitat persistence and the evolution of wing dimorphism in insects. American Naturalist 144, 772-798.
- Roff, D.A. 1996. The evolution of threshold traits in animals. Quarterly Review of Biology 71, 3-35.
- Roff, D.A. 1997. Evolutionary Quantitative Genetics. Chapman and Hall, New York.
- Roff, D. A. 1998. Effects of inbreeding on morphological and life history traits of the sand cricket, Gryllus firmus. Heredity, 81, 28-37.
- Roff, D.A. and D. J. Fairbairn. 1999. Predicting correlated responses in natural populations: changes in JHE activity in the Bermuda population of the sand cricket. Heredity 83, 440-450.
- Roff, D.A., S. Mostowy and D. J. Fairbairn. 2002. The evolution of trade-offs: testing predictions on response to selection and environmental variation. Evolution 56, 84-95.
- Roff, D.A. 2002. Life History Evolution. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, MA.
- Roff, D. A. & Gelinas, M. B. 2003. Phenotypic plasticity and the evolution of trade-offs: the quantitative genetics of resource allocation in the wing dimorphic cricket, Gryllus firmus. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 16, 55-63.
- Roff, D. A., Crnokrak, P. & Fairbairn, D. J. 2003. The evolution of trade-offs: geographic variation in call duration and flight ability in the sand cricket, Gryllus firmus. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 16: 744-753.
- Roff, D. A. 2006. Introduction to Computer-Intensive Methods of Data Analysis in Biology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Click here for a complete publication list.
Click here to download Appendix C for Introduction to Computer-Intensive Methods of Data Analysis in Biology.