DST-Inspire Faculty

Research

My broad research interest is in the evolution of multivariate genetic architecture of quantitative traits. A special case of the above is the sex-specific genetic architecture of human complex traits and disorders. Sex-difference in complex traits in humans is ubiquitous, for e.g., male bias in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), age of onset in schizophrenia, incidence of cardiovascular disease, etc. But traits are not independent as they are genetically correlated to each other by pleiotropy or linkage disequilibrium. For e.g., coronary artery disease, LDL levels and blood pressure consist of functionally related modules of traits, and analysing one trait in isolation will not provide a complete picture of the disease biology. If we analyse the shared traits in males and females, e.g., LDL levels in males and females, together, and we have genetic data, we would be able to estimate the correlation between the male and female traits, which will help us to quantify the degree of sex-difference, and will provide us with an estimate of genetic constraint to the evolution of sex-specificity.

Current Focus

Evolution of sex-differences in genetic architecture through simulation studies

• a) As males and females share the genome, the intersexual covariation between the sexes creates a genetic constraint to the independent evolution of the sexes. Hence, even in the presence of sexually divergent selection pressure, if genetic correlation between a shared trait in males and females is high, the sexes cannot reach their optimum phenotypes, and this creates an intra-locus sexual conflict (IASC). Through evolutionary simulations, I am trying to model to what degree shared genetic architecture can hinder or facilitate the evolution of sex-specific optima when faced with sexually divergent selection.
• b) Another focus is on the kind of genetic architecture of disease traits that is expected when sexual antagonism, i.e., when alleles favoured in one sex and disfavoured in the other, is present. Sexual antagonism is especially relevant for diseases, as alleles increasing disease risk in one sex can be maintained in the population at a higher frequency than expected due to mutation-selection equilibrium or genetic drift if they are selected for in the other sex.

Sex-differences in multivariate genetic architecture in humans
When we consider correlated traits (multivariate), the evolutionary dynamics related to genetic constraint largely changes compared to working with one trait at a time (univariate). Multivariate models are also more realistic compared to their univariate counterparts, as traits do not occur in isolation. Besides simulation studies, another objective of the lab is to investigate sex-differences in multivariate genetic architecture of psychiatric disorders and anthropomorphic traits in UK Bio Bank.

CV

Education

Professional Appointments

Post-Doctoral Researcher
(05/2021- 09/2021) Department of Biotechnology Research Associate (DBT-RA) at the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics (NIBMG)

Awards/Honors

• 2020 – Publication nominated for ‘First annual Heredity prize for the Best student’s paper’
• 2015 – Society for the Study of Evolution travel stipend to attend the 15th Congress of the European Society for Evolutionary Biology (ESEB) held in Lausanne, Switzerland
• 2010 – CSIR- Junior Research Fellowship ¬¬– NET (Life Sciences)

Invited/Special lectures

• March 2022 – Invited International Women’s Day special lecture at National Institute of Biomedical Genomics, Kalyani
• 2014 – Talk at the European Meeting of PhD Students in Evolutionary Biology (EMPSEB) conference organized in Belgium

Selected presentations

• August 2015 – Poster presentation at the European Society of Evolutionary Biology (ESEB) conference, at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland.

Past Major Projects

• Comparative quantitative genetics of morphology and song traits in three species of Acridid grasshoppers
• Estimation of male indirect genetic effects on female reproductive traits under a potential conflict scenario in a grasshopper.

Publications

PUBLICATIONS

• Chakrabarty, A., Chakraborty, S., Nandi, D., & Basu, A. (2024). Multivariate genetic architecture reveals testosterone-driven sexual antagonism in contemporary humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 121(24), e2404364121.
• Chakrabarty A*, van Kronenberg P, Toliopoulos N, Schielzeth H. Direct and indirect genetic effects on reproductive investment in a grasshopper. J Evol Biol. 2019 Apr;32(4):331-342. doi: 10.1111/jeb.13417. Epub 2019 Mar 5. PMID: 30693584
• Chakrabarty A*, Schielzeth H. Comparative analysis of the multivariate genetic architecture of morphological traits in three species of Gomphocerine grasshoppers. Heredity (Edinb). 2020 Feb;124(2):367-382. doi:10.1038/s41437-019-0276-1. Epub 2019 Oct 24. PMID: 31649325; PMCID: PMC6972768.

*= Corresponding author