Taras K Oleksyk

Taras K Oleksyk
Assistant Professor, Ph.D.
367 DH
(248) 370-3359
Lab location: 368 DH
Lab phone: (248) 370-3359
oleksyk@oakland.edu

OU Genomics Website

Courses: 

BIO 3340  Evolutionary Biology
BIO 4342/5382  Topics in Evolutionary Biology

Research: 

My research interests are in evolution, comparative genomics, environmental toxicology, and genetic epidemiology. My background is in genomics, specifically as it relates to adaptation, speciation and disease. My scientific interests are in two general areas. The first is in genomics and admixture of human populations. My lab is involved in several studies focusing on human population genetics and the analysis of the candidate disease genes in the Caribbean and Eastern Europe. My other interest is in evolution and conservation of endangered species in the Caribbean. I am involved in studies focusing on genome assembly and analysis; selection scans (Amazon parrots, Hispaniolan solenodons, African cheetah and elephants). Generally, I am interested in the study of genome diversity and its implications to evolutionary processes of adaptation and speciation.

Selected Publications:

Taras Oleksyk list of publications

Oleksyk, T.K., W.W. Wolfsberger*, A. M. Weber, K. Shchubelka*, O.T. Oleksyk, O. Levchuk, A. Patrus, N. Lazar, S.O. Castro-Marquez*, Y. Hasynets, P. Boldyzhar,  M. Neymet, A. Urbanovych, V. Strakhovska, K. Malyar, S. Chervyakova, O. Podoroha, N. Kovalchuk, J.L. Rodriguez-Flores,  W. Zhou, S. Medley*, F. Battistuzzi, R. Liu, Y. Hou, S, Chen, H. Yang, M. Yeager, M. Dean, R. E. Mills, and V. Smolanka. (2021). Genome Diversity in Ukraine. GigaScience, 10(1), giaa159. DOI: 10.1093/gigascience/giaa159.

Kolchanova, S., A. Komissarov, S. Kliver, A. Mazo-Vargas, Y. Afanador, J. Velez-Valentín, R. Valentín-de-la-Rosa, S. Castro-Marquez*, I. Rivera-Colon, A.J. Majeske, W.W. Wolfsberger*, T. Hains, A. Corvelo, J.C. Martinez-Cruzado, T.C. Glenn, O. Robinson, K.P. Koepfli, and T.K. Oleksyk. (2021). Molecular phylogeny and evolution of Amazon parrots in the Greater Antilles. Genes (Basel), 12(4), 608. DOI: 10.3390/genes12040608.

Hains T, O'Neill K, Velez J, Speed, N., Clubb, S., Oleksyk, T.K, and Stacy Pirro. (2020). The complete genome sequences of 22 parrot species (Psittaciformes, Aves). F1000Research 9, 1318. DOI: 10.12688/f1000research.25560.1.

Zhernakova DV, Brukhin V, Malov S, T.K. Oleksyk, K.P. Koepfli, A. Zhuk,P. Dobrynin, S. Kliver, N. Cherkasov, G. Tamazian, M. Rotkevich, K. Krasheninnikova, I. Evsyukov, S. Sidorov, A. Gorbunova, E. Chernyaeva, A. Shevchenko, S. Kolchanova, A. Komissarov, S. Simonov, A. Antonik, A. Logachev, D.E. Polev, O.A. Pavlova, A.S. Glotov, V. Ulantsev, E. Noskova, T.K. Davydova, T.M. Sivtseva, S. Limborska, O. Balanovsky, V. Osakovsky, A. Novozhilov, V. Puzyrev, and S.J. O'Brien. (2020). Genome-wide sequence analyses of ethnic populations across Russia. Genomics 112(1), 442-458. DOI: 10.1016/j.ygeno.2019.03.007.

Shchubelka*, K.M., Oleksyk, O. T., Oleksyk T.K, and Y.S. Hasynets. (2019). Vitamin D in the genetic aspect the role in type 1 diabetes mellitus. ENDOKRYNOLOGIA 24(4), 367-372. DOI: 10.31793/1680-1466.2019.24-4.367.

Kolchanova S, S. Kliver, A. Komissarov, P. Dobrinin, G. Tamazian, K. Grigorev, W.W Wolfsberger,* A.J. Majeske, J. Velez-Valentin, R. Valentin de la Rosa, J.R. Paul-Murphy, DS-M. Guzman, M.H. Court, J.L. Rodriguez-Flores, J.C. Martínez-Cruzado and T.K. Oleksyk. (2019). Genomes of three closely related Caribbean Amazons provide insight for species history and conservation. Genes 10(1), 54. DOI: 10.3390/genes10010054.

Diaz-Zabala, H.J., A.P. Ortiz, L. Garland, K. Jones, C.M. Perez, E. Mora, N. Arroyo, T.K. Oleksyk, M. Echenique, J.L. Matta, M. Dean and J. Dutil. (2018). A recurrent BRCA2 mutation explains the majority of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer syndrome cases in Puerto Rico. Cancers (Basel), E419. DOI: 10.3390/cancers10110419.

Grigorev, K., S. Kliver, P. Dobrynin, A. Komissarov, W. Wolfsberger*, K. Krasheninnikova, Y. M Afanador-Hernández, A.L. Brandt, L.A. Paulino, R. Carreras, L.E. Rodríguez, A. Núñez, J.R. Brandt, F. Silva, J.D. Hernández-Martich, A.J. Majeske, A. Antunes, A.L. Roca, S.J. O'Brien, J.C. Martínez-Cruzado and T.K. Oleksyk. (2018). Innovative assembly strategy contributes to the understanding of evolution and conservation genetics of the critically endangered Solenodon paradoxus from the island of Hispaniola. GigaScience 7(6), giy025. DOI: 10.1093/gigascience/giy025.

Cosme, S., H.E. Cuevas, D. Zhang, T.K. Oleksyk and B. Irish. (2016). Genetic diversity of naturalized cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) in Puerto Rico. Tree Genetics & Genomes 12, 88. DOI: 10.1007/s11295-016-1045-4.

Dobrynin P, S. Liu, G. Tamazian, Z. Xiong, A.A. Yurchenko, K. Krasheninnikova, S. Kliver, A. Schmidt-Küntzel, K.P. Koepfli, W. Johnson, L.F. Kuderna, R. García-Pérez, M.d. Manuel, R. Godinez, A. Komissarov, A. Makunin, V. Brukhin, W. Qiu, L. Zhou, F. Li, J. Yi, C. Driscoll, A. Antunes, T.K. Oleksyk, E. Eizirik, P. Perelman, M. Roelke, D. Wildt, M. Diekhans, T. Marques-Bonet , L. Marker, J. Bhak, J. Wang, G. Zhang and S.J. O'Brien. (2015). Genomic legacy of the African cheetah, Acinonyx jubatus. Genome Biology, 16,277. DOI: 10.1186/s13059-015-0837-4.

Oleksyk, T.K., V. Brukhin and S.J. O’Brien. (2015). Putting Russia on the genome map. Science 350 (6262), 747. DOI: 10.1126/science.350.6262.747-a.

Oleksyk, T.K., V. Brukhin and S.J. O’Brien. (2015). The Genome Russia project: closing the largest remaining omission on the world Genome map. GigaScience, 4, 53. DOI: 10.1186/s13742-015-0095-0.

The 1000 Genomes Project Consortium. (2015). A global reference for human genetic variation. Nature, 526(7571), 68–74. DOI: 10.1038/nature15393.

Guiblet, W.M., K. Zhao, S.J. O’Brien, S. Massey, A.L. Roca and T.K. Oleksyk. (2015). SmileFinder: a resampling-based platform to evaluate signatures of selection from genome-wide sets of matching allele frequency data between populations. GigaScience, 4,1. DOI: 10.1186/2047-217X-4-1.

Afanador, Y., J. Velez-Valentín, R. Valentín de la Rosa, J.C. Martínez-Cruzado, B. vonHoldt and T. K. Oleksyk. (2014). Isolation and characterization of microsatellite loci in the critically endangered Puerto Rican parrot (Amazona vittata). Conservation Genetics Resources, 6(4), 885–889. DOI: 10.1007/s12686-014-0232-6.

Gravel, S., F. Zakharia, J.K. Byrnes, M. Muzzio, Moreno-Estrada, A.L. Rodriguez-Flores, E.E. Kenny, C.R. Gignoux, B.K. Maples, W.G. Guiblet, J. Dutil, K. Sandoval and G. Bedoya, The 1000 Genomes Project, T.K. Oleksyk, A. Ruiz-Linares, E.G. Burchard, J.C. Martinez-Cruzado and C.D. Bustamante. (2013). Reconstructing Native American migrations from whole-genome and whole-exome data. PLoS Genetics, 9(12), e1004023. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1004023.

The 1000 Genomes Project Consortium. (2012). An integrated map of genetic variation from 1,092 human genomes. Nature, 491, 56-65. DOI: 10.1038/nature11632.

*OU student