Ecological and Evolutionary Genetics Research Group

Head of Research, Senior research associate Evgeniy P. Simonov CSc. (Candidate of Biological Sciences) E-mail: e.p.simonov@utmn.ru WoS ResearcherID: F-7698-2012

Scientific Interests
• Application of the methods of molecular genetics and bioinformatics in the fields of evolutionary biology and ecology. Population genetics and phylogenetics of animals. DNA barcoding.
• Member of the A. M. Nikolsky Herpetological Society and a snake expert of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Viper Specialist Group/

Education
– CSc. (Candidate of Biological Sciences), Institute of Systematics and Ecology of Animals, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (2012)
– Bachelor’s in Biology (with honors), Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University (2009).

Scholarships and Awards
• Finnish Government’s Center for International Mobility (CIMO) Fellowship to conduct research at the Ecological Genetics Research Unit, Department of Biosciences, University of Helsinki (2012);
• Norwegian Research Council’s Yggdrasil Fellowship to conduct research at the National Center for Biosystematics, Natural History Museum, University of Oslo (2012);
• German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) at the Institute of Pharmacy and Molecular Biotechnology, Heidelberg University (2010);
• Novosibirsk Regional Administration’s scholarship for academic excellence and outstanding research work (2008)



Main Research Areas

• Genetic adaptations of ectothermic vertebrates to latitudinal and altitudinal environmental gradients, including adaptation to extreme conditions of the subarctic.
• Distribution and genetic variability of emergent infectious diseases of fish, amphibians, and reptiles.
• Differential gene expression and polymorphism of protein-coding DNA in the microevolutionary variability of snake venom components, based on the example of the Gloydius genus.
• Phylogeographic studies in Siberia and Central Asia

Current Projects

• Russian Science Foundation (RSF) grant № 19-14-00218 (2019-2021): "Adaptive radiation and speciation in cyprinid fish under conditions of sympatry". In collaboration with the Papanin Institute for Biology of Inland Waters, Russian Academy of Sciences

• Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) grant № 19-04-00964_A (2019-2021): "Genetic adaptation in the populations of Siberian larch using genome-wide genotyping data". In collaboration with Siberian Federal University

• RFBR grant № 18-29-13044_ мк (2018-2020): "Genomic and epigenomic variability associated with the adaptation of woody plants to a heterogeneous environment". In collaboration with Siberian Federal University and the Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology (Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences) 

• RFBR grant № 18-34-20122_ мол_а_вед (2018-2020): "Influence of intestinal conditions on the structure of microbial communities among freshwater fish species with different nutrition types". In collaboration with the Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences 

Selected Publications

1. Levin B.A., Simonov E., Dgebuadze Y.Y., Levina M., Golubtsov A.S. (2020) In the rivers: Multiple adaptive radiations of cyprinid fishes (Labeobarbus) in Ethiopian Highlands // Scientific Reports 10: 7192. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-64350-4. (Q1).
2. Solovyev M.M., Kashinskaya E.N., Bochkarev N.A., Andree K.B., Simonov E. (2019) The effect of diet on the structure of gut bacterial community of sympatric pair of whitefishes (Coregonus lavaretus): one story more // PeerJ 7(12): e8005. doi: 10.7717/peerj.8005 (Q1).

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