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Hi! I’m Ananya Nidamangala Srinivasa, a postdoctoral researcher in the Fritz-Laylin lab at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. I am interested in understanding how interactions (e.g., cooperation or conflict) shape the evolutionary trajectories of the participants. Currently, I’m working on how such interactions can shape the cytoskeleton across evolutionarily diverse lineages.
Undergraduate work
I am currently interested in inter-organismal interactions that influence cellular processes, through studying unicellular organisms with a multi-pronged approach of genetics, molecular and cell biology. This interest has been with me since I worked with auxotrophic bacterial communities at the Kost Lab at the University of Osnabrück while working towards my Bachelor’s thesis. This made me appreciate how the topography of interactions can affect both the community and its members. I am excited to learn more about how different interactions shape the fate of organisms in communities, both in real time and on evolutionary timescales. These interactions include those in a mutualistic-parasitic spectrum, allowing me to reflect on the constant influence of conflict between (and within) organisms on their evolution.
Graduate Work
As a PhD candidate in the Zanders Lab through the University of Kansas Medical Center (Kansas City, KS), I worked on dissecting the molecular mechanism of the wtf meiotic drivers in Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Meiosis is a specialized form of cell division that some diploid organisms use to make haploid gametes. In a heterozygous organism, post-meiosis, each allele is assumed to be equally represented in the gamete population. This Mendelian allele transmission is a fundamental law of genetics. Meiotic drivers break this law by biasing their transmission into the next generation. They actively or indirectly ensure a higher representation in the progeny. What I love about meiotic drive is the intragenomic conflict and the consequences this conflict has over evolutionary time scales.
The goals of my thesis projects were to understand the molecular mechanism of wtf drive, including the transcriptional regulation of wtf drivers, and how highly diverged Wtf proteins enable functional meiotic drive. We identified that transcriptional regulation and selective protein exclusion promote functional drive in S. pombe. The wtf gene family has similarly effective drivers sharing as low as 20% amino acid identity across species. The primary focus of my thesis work was to understand how these significantly diverged Wtf proteins achieve similar degrees of transmission. By studying Wtf proteins from four Schizosaccharomyces species, I identified that self-assembly and localization of the Wtf proteins in cells are shared across the gene family, implicating properties that could constrain the mechanism of drive. To understand the rules of poison and antidote function, I also generated a suite of mutant wtf alleles. Amongst other key results, I found alleles that encoded a toxic Wtfpoison protein that the corresponding Wtfantidote could not rescue. Such emergent self-killing wtf alleles could contribute to the cryptic fitness consequences of drivers. Together, the results of my thesis work provided novel insight into mechanisms of meiotic drive and protein toxicity.
Outside the lab
Off the bench, I want to make science more approachable through art and science communication. I’m learning, improving, and trying to effectively communicate popular science through my science blog, art and other mediums. I’ve also contributed to the production of multiple podcast episodes on Genetics in Your World as a part of the Genetics Society of America Early Career Leadership Program. I produced the episode found here. I am also a 2023 ASAPbio Fellow, through which I will be learning about and advocating for preprints!
For pleasure, I write and draw beyond science too! I am also a student of the Indian classical dance, Bharatanatyam, under the tutelage of Shri A. Lakshmanaswamy in Chennai, India. I’ve been dancing since I was six years old, and perform annually in India. I draw inspiration from each of these interests to keep learning and discovering new ways to approach science, art and life.
Publications/ In Press:
Nidamangala Srinivasa A, Campbell S, Venkatesan S, Nuckolls NL, Lange JJ, et al. (2025) Functional constraints of wtf killer meiotic drivers. PLOS Genetics 21(2): e1011534. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1011534
Nuckolls, N. L., Nidamangala Srinivasa, A., Mok, A. C., Helston, R. M., Bravo Núñez, M. A., Lange, J. J., Gallagher, T. J., Seidel, C. W., & Zanders, S. E. (2022). S. pombe wtf drivers use dual transcriptional regulation and selective protein exclusion from spores to cause meiotic drive. PLOS Genetics, 18(12), e1009847. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1009847
De Carvalho M, Jia GS, Nidamangala Srinivasa A, Billmyre RB, Xu YH, Lange JJ, Sabbarini IM, Du LL, Zanders SE. The wtf meiotic driver gene family has unexpectedly persisted for over 100 million years eLife 11:e81149. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.81149
Nidamangala Srinivasa A, Zanders SE. Meiotic drive. Curr Biol. 2020;30:R627-R629.Meiotic drive. Curr Biol. 2020 Jun 8;30(11):R627-R629. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.04.023. PMID: 32516606.
Ananya Nidamangala Srinivasa 