Quick Facts
Biography
Sonja Siljak-Yakovlev (born 19 September 1948) is an Emeritus Professor of biology at the Université Paris-Sud. She is a former graduate of University of Sarajevo, Bosnia.
Research
In 1998 Sonja Siljak-Yakovlev have studied 11 Hypochaeris species from South America and Europe including H. achyrophorus, H. chillensis and H. cretensis and their locuses. During the study, she discovered that when combining 18S-5.3S-28S with 5S gives a different result then the European counterpart which have a minor difference of 5.8S. This eventually proved that evolutionally the plants are different.
In 2002 Sonja Siljak have studied two species of spruce genus (P. omorika and P. abies) and their heterochromatin Chromomycin-A. In 2003 she along with F Bogunic, E Muratovic, and SC Brown have studied five species and two subspecies of pine in the Balkans region and noted that P. peuce, P. sylvestris, P. mugo and P. nigra are present at the region. The same year, Sonja Siljak along with S Peccenini, E Muratovic, V Zoldos, O Robin and J Valles had studied lilies; particularly genus Lilium and some of its species such as L. carniolicum, L. pomponium and L. pyrenaicum using the same FISH technology.
In 2006 she along with Saranya Srisuwan and Darasinh Sihachakr have used fluorescence in situ hybridization on various species of morning glories (I. batanas, I. trifida, I. triloba, I. tiliacea, I. leucantha, I. setosa, I. tabascana) and discovered that I. trifida is a possible progenitor of I. batatas and I. tabascana.