Nikki Nuckolls

Nikki grew up loving science, but as a student in a religious school, she was not educated about evolution but instead taught creationism.  As an undergraduate, she took her first course on evolution and her mind was opened to the wonders of biology.  In pursuit of this new passion, Nikki petitioned Dr. Scott Hawley to work in his lab.  He graciously agreed, and she worked with him for two years, studying chromosome segregation fidelity during meiosis. 

 

For her graduate research at Stowers, she combined passion for evolution with love of meiosis in the lab of Dr. SaraH Zanders, where she studied genetic conflict.  Despite being a highly conserved process, the genes controlling meiosis are quickly evolving.  Nikki's Ph.D. research was based on the hypothesis that conflicts with selfish DNA elements shape the evolution of meiosis.  In three separate publications, we identified and characterized the first class of meiotic drivers in yeast (the wtf family), elucidating molecular mechanisms by which selfish genes act. 

 

For her postdoctoral research, Nikki is investigating the final steps of meiosis - where each daughter nucleus and its associated cytoplasm is packaged into mature gametes.  In comparison to nuclear contents, little is known about the partitioning of cytoplasmic contents and potential influences on gamete health.  Here, and in her own lab one day, she hopes to fill this gap, providing insights into an important, lingering question in the meiosis field.