Alexander Mackintosh | Birnstiel Award 2024

“The role of chromosome rearrangements in speciation.”

Alexander Mackintosh’s PhD research focused on the role of chromosome rearrangements in evolution. He investigated whether rearrangements where chromosomes split apart or join together can lead to the formation of new species. Although we cannot directly observe how new species form, comparing the genomes of current-day species provides information about how they diverged from one another. Alexander Mackintosh analysed genome sequences from a pair of butterfly species whose chromosomes have undergone a large number of rearrangements. By modelling the speciation process along the genome, he could show that rearrangements were associated with a lower rate of gene exchange between the species, promoting their divergence. This research demonstrates that these types of rearrangements do indeed play a role in speciation.

Alexander Mackintosh studied biological sciences with a focus on evolutionary biology at the University of Edinburgh, where he also did his PhD. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Upsalla (Sweden).

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