Diego Cortez Quezada

Systems Biology Researcher

Associate Professor

Academic history

Diego Cortez was born in México City where he studied Biology and a Master degree in Experimental Biology at UNAM. His PhD was at the Pasteur Institute in Paris and the Postdoc at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, working on functional genomics of mammalian sex chromosomes (Cortez et al Nature 2014).

Diego started working at the Genomic Sciences Center of UNAM in 2015, and since 2016, his projects are funded by CONACyT-SEP Basic Science, UNAM-PAPIIT, CONACyT-Frontiers in Science and the Royal Society-Newton Foundation.

Diego works in the lab and in the field seeking to understand the causes of transitions between sex determination systems (from temperature to genetic sex determination). Currently the main project of the laboratory aims to understand the degeneration of the sex chromosomes and the short life expectancy of males in 8 families of reptiles native to Mexico.

The laboratory has several open positions at all levels. Interested students please send an email to dcortez@ccg.unam.mx

Links

Google Scholar
Scopus

Selected publications

1. Convergent origination of a Drosophila-like dosage compensation mechanism in a reptile lineage
R Marin, D Cortez, et al. Genome Research. 2017. 27 (12), 1974-1987
2. Origins and functional evolution of Y chromosomes across mammals. Cortez D, Marin R, et al. Nature. 2014. Apr 24;508(7497):488-93.
3. Male mutation bias is the main force shaping chromosomal substitution rates in monotreme mammals. V Link, D Aguilar-Gómez, C Ramírez-Suástegui, LD Hurst, D Cortez. Genome biology and evolution. 2017. 9 (9), 2198-2210.
4. Evidence for a Xer/dif system for chromosome resolution in archaea
D Cortez, et al. PLoS Genetics. 2010. 6 (10), e1001166

Telephone: (777) 3291686
Email: dcortez@ccg.unam.mx

Publications

YearPublicationPMID
2022Suárez-Varón, G., Mendoza-Cruz, E., Acosta, A., Cruz, M.V.S., Cortez, D., Hernández-Gallegos, O.. (2022). "Genetic determination and JARID2 over-expression in a thermal incubation experiment in Casque-Headed Lizard.". Plos One. 17(7):-. [doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0263804]35797377
2022Suárez-Varón, G., Mendoza-Cruz, E., Acosta, A., Villagrán-Santa Cruz, M., Cortez D, Hernández-Gallegos, O.. (2022). "A study of thermally-induced sex reversal in casque-headed lizards". bioRxiv. ():-. [doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.01.28.478147]
2022Trujillo, N., Pacheco, M.M., Soldatini, C., Ancona, S., Young, R.C., Barajas, Y.V.A., Orta, A.H., Rodriguez, C., Szekely, T., Drummond, H., Urrutia, A.O., Cortez, D.. (2022). "Lack of age-related mosaic loss of W chromosome in long-lived birds.". BIOLOGY LETTERS. 18(2):-. [doi:10.1098/rsbl.2021.0553]35193370
2021Orta, A.H., Bush, S.J., Gutiérrez-Mariscal, M., Castro-Obregón, S., Jaimes-Hoy, L., Grande, R., Vázquez, G., Gorostieta-Salas, E., Martínez-Pacheco, M., Díaz-Barba, K., Cornejo-Páramo, P., Sanchez-Flores, A., Székely, T., Urrutia, A.O., Cortez, D.. (2021). "Rats exhibit age-related mosaic loss of chromosome Y.". Communications Biology. 4(1):-. [doi:10.1038/s42003-021-02936-y]34934158
2021Suárez-Varón, G., Cortez, D., Cruz, M.V.S., Rojas-Hernández, U., Hernández-Gallegos, O.. (2021). "Variation of the embryonic stage of Basiliscus vittatus (Squamata: Corytophanidae) at oviposition". REVISTA MEXICANA DE BIODIVERSIDAD. 92():-. [doi:10.22201/IB.20078706E.2021.92.3795]
2021Merchant-Larios, H., Diáz-Hernández, V., Cortez, D.. (2021). "Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms Underlying Temperature-Dependent Sex Determination in Turtles.". SEXUAL DEVELOPMENT. 15(1-3):38-46. [doi:10.1159/000515296]34167126
2021Alvear, V.M.H., Mateos, M., Cortez, D., Tamborindeguy, C., Martinez-Romero, E.. (2021). "Differential gene expression in a tripartite interaction: Drosophila , spiroplasma and parasitic wasps.". Peerj. 9():-. [doi:10.7717/peerj.11020]33717711
2021Suárez-Varón, G, Cortez D, Villagrán-Santa Cruz, M, Rojas-Hernández, U, Hernández-Gallegos, O. (2021). "Variación del estadio embrionario de Basiliscus vittatus (Squamata: Corytophanidae) en la oviposición". REVISTA MEXICANA DE BIODIVERSIDAD. 92():923795-. [doi:https://doi.org/10.22201/ib.20078706e.2021.92.3795]
2020Cornejo-Páramo, P., Dissanayake, D.S.B., Lira-Noriega, A., Martínez-Pacheco, M.L., Acosta, A., Ramírez-Suástegui, C., Méndez-de-la-Cruz, F.R., Székely, T., Urrutia, A.O., Georges, A., Cortez, D.. (2020). "Viviparous Reptile Regarded to Have Temperature-Dependent Sex Determination Has Old XY Chromosomes.". Genome Biology And Evolution. 12(6):924-930. [doi:10.1093/gbe/evaa104]32433751
2020Cornejo-Páramo, P., Lira-Noriega, A., Ramírez-Suástegui, C., Méndez-De-La-Cruz, F.R., Székely, T., Urrutia, A.O., Cortez, D.. (2020). "Sex determination systems in reptiles are related to ambient temperature but not to the level of climatic fluctuation.". Bmc Evolutionary Biology. 20(1):-. [doi:10.1186/s12862-020-01671-y]32807071
2020Martínez-Pacheco, M., Tenorio, M., Almonte, L., Fajardo, V., Godínez, A., Fernández, D., Cornejo-Páramo, P., Díaz-Barba, K., Halbert, J., Liechti, A., Székely, T., Urrutia, A.O., Cortez, D.. (2020). "Expression Evolution of Ancestral XY Gametologs across All Major Groups of Placental Mammals.". Genome Biology And Evolution. 12(11):2015-2028. [doi:10.1093/gbe/evaa173]32790864
2019Acosta, A., Martínez-Pacheco, M.L., Díaz-Barba, K., Porras, N., Gutiérrez-Mariscal, M., Cortez, D.. (2019). "Deciphering Ancestral Sex Chromosome Turnovers Based on Analysis of Male Mutation Bias.". Genome Biology And Evolution. 11(11):3054-3067. [doi:10.1093/gbe/evz221]31605487
2019Gabriel Suárez-Varón, Orlando Suárez-Rodríguez, Gisela Granados-González, Maricela Villagrán-Santa Cruz, Kevin M. Gribbins, Diego Cortez-Quezada, Oswaldo Hernández-Gallegos. (2019). "Relative clutch mass of Basiliscus vittatus Wiegmann, 1828 (Squamata, Corytophanidae): female morphological constraints". Herpetozoa. 32(3):211-219. [doi:10.3897/herpetozoa.32.e35910]
2019Acosta, A., Suárez-Varón, G., Rodríguez-Miranda, L.A., Lira-Noriega, A., Aguilar-Gómez, D., Gutiérrez-Mariscal, M., Hernández-Gallegos, O., Méndez-de-la-Cruz, F., Cortez, D.. (2019). "Corytophanids Replaced the Pleurodont XY System with a New Pair of XY Chromosomes.". Genome Biology And Evolution. 11(9):2666-2677. [doi:10.1093/gbe/evz196]31557287
2017Marin, R., Cortez, D., Lamanna, F., Pradeepa, M.M., Leushkin, E., Julien, P., Liechti, A., Halbert, J., Brüning, T., Mössinger, K., Trefzer, T., Conrad, C., Kerver, H.N., Wade, J., Tschopp, P., Kaessmann, H.. (2017). "Convergent origination of a Drosophila-like dosage compensation mechanism in a reptile lineage". GENOME RESEARCH. 27(12):1974-1987. [doi:10.1101/gr.223727.117]29133310
2017Link V, Aguilar-Gómez D, Ramírez-Suástegui C, Hurst LD, Cortez D. (2017). "Male mutation bias is the main force shaping chromosomal substitution rates in monotreme mammals". Genome Biology And Evolution. 9(9):2198-2210. [doi:10.1093/gbe/evx155]28922870
2017Vicens, Alberto, Andrade-Lopez, Karla, Cortez, Diego, Maria Gutierrez, Rosa, Trevino, Claudia L.. (2017). "Premammalian origin of the sperm-specific Slo3 channel". FEBS OPEN BIO. 7(3):382-390. [doi:10.1002/2211-5463.12186]28286733
2016Degli Esposti M, Cortez D, Lozano L, Rasmussen S, Nielsen HB, Martinez Romero E. (2016). "Alpha proteobacterial ancestry of the [Fe-Fe]-hydrogenases in anaerobic eukaryotes". Biology Direct. 11(1):34-34. [doi:10.1186/s13062-016-0136-3]27473689