Ying Tan

Department of Biology University of Massachusetts-Boston 100 Morrissey Blvd. Boston, MA 02125 Phone: (617) 287-6626 Fax: (617) 287-6650 E-mail: ying.tan@umb.edu

Education

Ph.D., Yale University, 1996
B.S., Nanjing University, 1989

Current Position

Assistant Professor
Department of Biology
University of Massachusetts Boston

Teaching Interests

Graduate level: Biol 630 Evolutionary Bioinformatics/Molecular Evolution
Undergraduate level: Biol 360 Bioinformatics

Research interests

In broad terms, I am interested in applying Bioinformatics approaches to conduct integrated evolutionary and functional studies. My current research projects have two themes: 1) to use a well suited model system to address important evolutionary issues, and 2) to employ evolutionary analysis to provide new perspectives on functional studies. Specifically, the project on molecular evolution of color vision (opsin) genes in primates fall into the first theme, the project on molecular evolution of Alzheimer’s-related genes belongs to the second, while the project on molecular evolution of circadian rhythm in primates covers both themes. Through these projects, we hope to address certain intriguing primate evolution issues such as the diurnality/nocturnality in ancestral primates and to provide functional predictions by comparative studies.

Publications

Tan, Y., Yoder, A.D., Yamashita, N., & Li, W. -H. Evidence from Opsin Genes Rejects Nocturnality in Ancestral Primates. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 102 (41), 14712-6 (2005).

Jacobs, G. H., Deegan II, J. F., Tan, Y. & Li, W-H. Opsin gene and photopigment polymorphism in a prosimian primate. Vision Research 42, 11-18 (2002)

Li, W-H, Tan, Y., Boissinot, S., Shyue, S-K. & Hewett-Emmett, D. Genetic diversity of color vision in primates. In: The Biology of Biodiversity (M. Kato, ed.) Springer Verlag, New York. Pp. 259-274 (2000).

Li, W-H, Boissinot, S., Tan, Y., Shyue, S-K. & Hewett-Emmett, D. Evolutionary genetics of primate color vision: recent progress and potential limits to knowledge. Evol. Biol. 32, 151-178 (1999).

Tan, Y. & Li, W-H. Trichromacy in ancestral and extant prosimians. Nature 402, 36 (1999).

Boissinot, S., Tan, Y., Shyue, S-K., Schneider, H., Sampaio, I., Neiswanger, K., Hewett-Emmett, D. & Li, W-H. Origins and antiquity of X-linked tri-allelic color vision systems in New World monkeys. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 95, 13749-13754 (1998).

Tan, Y. & Riley, M. A. Positive selection and recombination: major molecular mechanisms of colicin diversity. Trends Ecol. Evol. 12, 348-351 (1997).

Tan, Y. & Riley, M. A. Nucleotide polymorphism in colicin E2 gene clusters: evidence for non-neutral evolution. Mol. Biol. Evol. 14, 666-673 (1997).

Tan, Y. & Riley, M. A. Rapid Invasion of colicinogenic bacteria with novel immunity functions. Microbiology 142, 2175-2180 (1996).

Sun, L., Jiang R., Steinbach, S., Holmes, A., Campanelli, C., Forstner, J., Tan, Y., Riley, M., & Goldstein, R. Epidemics of Pseudomonas (Burkholderia) cepacia in Canadian and British CF centers caused by a single divergent, highly-transmissible lineage carrying the identical adhesin cable pilus gene sequence. Nature Medicine 1, 661-666 (1995).

Riley, M. A., Tan, Y., & Wang, J-P. Nucleotide polymorphism in colicin E1 and Ia plasmids from natural isolates of Escherichia coli. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 91, 11276-11280 (1994).

Tan, Y., Bishoff, S. & Riley, M. A. Ubiquitins revisited: further examples of within- and between-locus concerted evolution. Mol. Phyl. Evol. 2, 351-360 (1993).