Research Interests
I am fascinated by the roles of gene expression regulation and evolvability in different biological processes, from adaptation and evolution to development and disease.
During my current research project, I have the chance to deeply explore how transcription factors, the main actors behind the process of regulation of gene expression, achieve their target specificity in the genome and how chromatin accessibility and cofactors also mediate this process.
Collaborators
Dr Rob White, Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, University of Cambridge, UK
Prof Steve Russell, Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge, UK
Dr Rhonda Snook, Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, UK
Key Publications
Porelli D, Westram AM, Pascual M, Gaston KJ, Butlin RK, Snook RR, (2016), Gene expression trade-offs across a latitudinal cline. (Submitted)
Porcelli D, Butlin RK, Gaston KJ, Joly D, Snook RR, (2015), The environmental genomics of metazoan thermal adaptation, Heredity, 114(5):502-14
Porcelli D, Oliva M, Duchi S, Latorre D, Cavaliere V, Barsanti P, Villani G, Gargiulo G, Caggese C, (2010), Genetic, functional and evolutionary characterization of scox, the Drosophila melanogaster ortholog of the human SCO1 gene, Mitochondrion, 10(5):433-48
Drosophila 12 Genomes Consortium, Evolution of genes and genomes on the Drosophila phylogeny, (2007), Nature, Nov 8;450(7167):203-18
Porcelli D, Barsanti P, Pesole G, Caggese C, (2007), The nuclear OXPHOS genes in insecta: a common evolutionary origin, a common cis-regulatory motif, a common destiny for gene duplicates, BMC Evol Biol, Nov 8, 7:215
