Ritchie obtained his PhD in 1988 from the
University of East Anglia working in the lab of
Godfrey Hewitt. Ritchie then took a postdoctoral position in Godfrey Hewitt's lab for two years,[4] before taking a postdoctoral position in Charalambos Kyriacou's lab at the
University of Leicester. Ritchie then moved to the
University of St Andrews where he has been a professor since 2012.
Work
Ritchie's work has focused on understanding the genetic basis of traits influencing reproductive isolation between species. His work has contributed to our current understanding of
Speciation and
Sexual selection.
"Do quantitative trait loci (QTL) for a courtship song difference between Drosophila simulans and D. sechellia coincide with candidate genes and intraspecific QTL?", Genetics[9]
"Drosophila song as a species-specific mating signal and the behavioural importance of Kyriacou & Hall cycles in D. melanogaster song", Animal Behaviour[10]
"Mating system manipulation and the evolution of sex-biased gene expression in Drosophila", Nature Communications[11]
References
^Ritchie MG, Butlin RK (2013). Godfrey M. Hewitt (1940-2013), President of ESEB 1999-2001. J Evol Biol 26: 691–692.
^Ritchie MG (2007). Sexual Selection and Speciation. Annu Rev Ecol Evol Syst 38: 79–102.
^Butlin R, Debelle A, Kerth C, Snook RR (2012). What do we need to know about speciation? Trends Ecol Evol. 27: 27-39
^Variation in female mate preference across a grasshopper hybrid zone. J Evol Biol 4: 227–240.
^Gleason JM, Ritchie MG (2004). Do quantitative trait loci (QTL) for a courtship song difference between Drosophila simulans and D. sechellia coincide with candidate genes and intraspecific QTL? Genetics 166: 1303–1311.
^Ritchie MG, Halsey EJ, Gleason JM (1999). Drosophila song as a species-specific mating signal and the behavioural importance of Kyriacou & Hall cycles in D. melanogaster song. Anim Behav 58: 649–657.
^Veltsos P, Fang Y, Cossins AR, Snook RR, Ritchie MG (2017). Mating system manipulation and the evolution of sex-biased gene expression in Drosophila. Nat Commun 8: 2072.