Ecological and evolutionary genomics of fishes.
One of my main research areas is on genome-scale studies of organism-environment interactions. I am currently using genomic and transcriptomic data to identify the mechanistic underpinnings of phenotypic traits under selection. By understanding underlying mechanisms of how selection shapes organisms in heterogeneous environments, we can generate a predictive framework for how future environmental changes (e.g., climate change, habitat disturbance) might affect organismal communities. Once a considered a black box, the biochemical complexity of non-model organisms is being illuminated by the wealth of genomic data that is rapidly accumulating, offering profound insight into molecular adaptation. In the post-genomics era, we can now ask how genetic variation is organically-linked to organismal performance across heterogeneous landscapes. Technological and methodological advances such as next-generation DNA sequencing offer great promise for examining signatures of selection on a genomic scale in organisms inhabiting heterogeneous environments.
Comparative immunogenomics and stress response.--Along with collaborators at the University of New Mexico, I am studying comparative immunogenomics, parasite communities, and stress response in a freshwater fish community in an arid land river. I am studying how closely-related cyprinid fishes (minnows) differ in response to harsh environmental conditions, namely hypoxic, drying pools in an arid land river during hot conditions in summer. Minnows have drastically different physiological tolerances, metazoan and bacterial parasite communities, and oxygen requirements and understanding the how these traits have evolved across a diverse clade of fishes can offer insight into stress response and immune-system function. If climate change continues as predicted, organisms in arid rivers will likely face increasingly harsh physiological challenges and knowledge of stress and immune response can inform likely outcomes.
One of my main research areas is on genome-scale studies of organism-environment interactions. I am currently using genomic and transcriptomic data to identify the mechanistic underpinnings of phenotypic traits under selection. By understanding underlying mechanisms of how selection shapes organisms in heterogeneous environments, we can generate a predictive framework for how future environmental changes (e.g., climate change, habitat disturbance) might affect organismal communities. Once a considered a black box, the biochemical complexity of non-model organisms is being illuminated by the wealth of genomic data that is rapidly accumulating, offering profound insight into molecular adaptation. In the post-genomics era, we can now ask how genetic variation is organically-linked to organismal performance across heterogeneous landscapes. Technological and methodological advances such as next-generation DNA sequencing offer great promise for examining signatures of selection on a genomic scale in organisms inhabiting heterogeneous environments.
Comparative immunogenomics and stress response.--Along with collaborators at the University of New Mexico, I am studying comparative immunogenomics, parasite communities, and stress response in a freshwater fish community in an arid land river. I am studying how closely-related cyprinid fishes (minnows) differ in response to harsh environmental conditions, namely hypoxic, drying pools in an arid land river during hot conditions in summer. Minnows have drastically different physiological tolerances, metazoan and bacterial parasite communities, and oxygen requirements and understanding the how these traits have evolved across a diverse clade of fishes can offer insight into stress response and immune-system function. If climate change continues as predicted, organisms in arid rivers will likely face increasingly harsh physiological challenges and knowledge of stress and immune response can inform likely outcomes.