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Postdoctoral Research Associate
Department of Biological Sciences

Smith College

Northampton, MA 01063

(413) 585-3881
(503) 853-5056 (cell)
(413) 585-3786 (fax)

Education:

  • Postdoctoral Research Associate, Smith College
  • Ph.D., Uppsala University 2006
  • Licentiate of Philosophy, Uppsala University 2004

Research Interests:

  • Assembling the Eukaryotic Tree of Life through Analyses of Eukaryotic Microbes
  • Placement of Enigmatic Unicellular Eukaryotes Within the Tree of Life Using Multigene Analyses Approach
  • Bioinformatics Project, Search of new molecular markers for deep level phylogeny

Additional Research Interests:

  • Taxonomy and Phylogeny of the Acoela (Metazoa, Bilateria)
  • Phylogeny of Basal Bilaterians
 

Publications:

Tekle Y. I., Grant J., Cole J., Nerad T. A., Patterson D. J., Anderson O. R., Katz L. A. in press. Phylogenetic placement of diverse amoebae inferred from multigene analysis and assessment of the stability of clades within ‘Amoebozoa’ upon removal of varying fast rate classes of SSU-rDNA. Mol. Phylog. and Evol. DOI:10.1016/j.ympev.2007.11.015

Yoon, H. S., J. Grant, Y. I. Tekle, M. Wu, B. C. Chaon, J. C. Cole, J. M. Logsdon, D. J. Patterson, D. Bhattacharya, L. A. Katz. 2008. in press. A Broadly Sampled Multigene Tree of Eukaryotes. BMC Evolutionary Biology

Tekle,Y. I., Grant J., Cole J.C., Nerad T.A., Anderson O.R., Patterson D.J., Katz L., 2007. A Multigene Analysis of Corallomyxa tenera sp. nov. Suggests its Membership in a Clade that Includes Gromia, Haplosporidia and Foraminifera. Protist doi:10.1016/j.protis.2007.05.002

Tekle Y. I., Raikova, O., Justine, J-L. and Jondelius, U. 2007. Ultrastructure and Tubulin Immunocytochemistry of the Copulatory Stylet-like structure in Childia species (Acoela). Journal of Morphology 268:166–180.

Tekle, Y. I., Raikova, O., Justine, J-L., Hendelberg, J. and Jondelius, U. 2007. Ultrastructural and immunocytochemical investigation of acoel sperms with 9 + 1 axoneme structure: new sperm characters for unraveling phylogeny in Acoela. Zoomorphology 126:1-16.

Raikova, O.I., Tekle, Y. I., Reuter, M., Gustafsson, M.K., Jondelius, U. 2006. Copulatory organ musculaturein Childia (Acoela) as revealed by phalloidin fluorescence and confocal microscopy. Tissue Cell  38(4):219-32.

Tekle, Y. I., Raikova, O. and Jondelius, U. 2006. A new viviparous acoel Childia vivipara sp. n. with observations on the developing embryos, sperm ultrastructure, body wall and stylet musculatures. Acta Zoologica 87:121–130.

Ogunlana, M.V., Hooge, M. D., Tekle, Y. I., Benayahu, Y., Barneah, O., and Tyler, S. 2005. Waminoa brickneri n. sp. (Acoela: Acoelomorpha) associated with corals in the Red Sea. Zootaxa 1008:1-11.

Tekle, Y. I., Raikova O., Ahmadzadeh, A., and Jondelius, U. 2005. Revision of the Childiidae (Acoela), a total evidence approach in reconstructing the phylogeny of acoels with reversed muscle layers. J. Zool. Systemat. Evol. Res. 43(1):72–90.

Tekle, Y. I. 2004. A new Haploposthia species (Acoela) from the Swedish west coast. Sarsia 89:85–90.

Theses:

Tekle, Y. I. 2006. Phylogeny and Taxonomy of Childia (Acoela): New characters for unraveling ac:oel phylogenies from molecules, ultrastructure, immunocytochemistry and confocal microscopy. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Science and Technology; 140. 44 pp. Uppsala.

Tekle, Y. I. 2004. Evolution of the Acoela, with emphasis on the Childiidae, acoels with reversed body-wall musculature. (Licentiate Thesis, Department of Systematic Zoology, Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University).

Tekle, Y. I. 2002. Can Histone H3 alone or combined with 18S rDNA and Elongation factor 1-alpha solve the phylogenetic position of the Acoela? (Master’s Thesis, Department of Systematic Zoology, Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University)

Manuscripts in review/in preparation:

Tekle, Y. I., Parfrey L.W., Katz L.A. Origin and diversification of Eukaryotes. (submitted to Bioscience)

Cole J., Andersen O.R., Tekle Y. I., J. Grant, Katz L. A., Nerad T. A Description of a New ‘Amoebozoa’ isolated from the American Lobster, Homarus americanus. (submitted to JEM)

Grant J., Tekle, Y. I.,  Katz, L.A. Phylogenetic placement of Leukarachnion Geitler, 1942 inferred from multigene analyses. (in prep.)

Tekle, Y. I., Grant J., Kovner, A.,  Katz, L. Identification of new molecular markers for assembling the eukaryotic tree of life. (in prep.)