Marsh Life Science Building, Rm 205
109 Carrigan Dr
Burlington, VT 05405
United States
- Ph.D. Stony Brook University, 2019;
- B.A. Oberlin College, 2008;
- B.M. Oberlin Conservatory, 2008
BIO
"Life is dangerous - animals, plants, and other organisms must overcome myriad threats just to survive. We are interested in how organisms adapt to these threats, from infectious disease, to toxins, to climate change. The Lauterbur Evo-Eco lab takes an integrative approach, combining methods and theory from ecology and evolutionary biology in the context of natural ecosystems, often including developing new computational and statistical methods.
Current topics include:
Impacts of ecological conditions on virus exposure - Climate change is having major effects on patterns of pathogen prevalence globally, but traditional disease ecological models are limited in scope for understanding these effects across time, pathogen and host diversity, and ecological conditions. We use signals of adaptation in the host genome to identify past pathogen exposure, and develop Bayesian statistical models to understand the impact of ecological (environmental and life history) factors among and within host species. Bats provide our primary study system, and the lab is part of the Bat1K consortium and active in multiple Bat1K and GBatNet working groups.
Pathogen exposure and pathogen release during species invasions - What contributes to the success of an invasive species and the decline of a native species? The enemy release hypothesis proposes that the success of invasive species in their new ranges may be a result of leaving old enemies behind in their native ranges, while the novel weapons hypothesis proposes that invasive species can bring with them weapons that harm the fitness of native species. Pathogens serve double-duty, both as an enemy that can be left behind, and as a weapon that can be introduced. The invasion process and timing of "Old World" rodents into New England is historically well documented and provides an exciting system in which to combine host genomic adaptation, museum sampling, and analysis of historical records to ask questions about the importance of infectious disease in species invasions.
The dynamics of gene duplication as a mechanism of adaptation to joint threats - Gene duplications are a major evolutionary force that provide novel evolutionary material, impact protein dosage, and as a result may be an important contributor to adaptation, especially in cases in which pleiotropy may pull adaptive trajectories in different directions. We are interested in developing and improving methods to 1. identify copy number variants in resequencing data; 2. detect signals of adaptive duplication vs. neutral duplication dynamics, and 3. associated copy number variation with ecological context in natural systems.
Concerted genomic convergence - Ecological threats, such as toxin exposure and high altitude, can present similar fitness challenges across diverse species. The patterns and processes of convergent evolution are widely studied at the scale of amino acids and individual genes, but the nature of interacting gene networks means that, in some cases, different genes can adapt with similar impacts on the activity of the network they comprise. In addition, in many cases there is a suite of metabolic pathways or networks that must adapt in order to mitigate the systemic fitness effects of an ecological threat. We are therefore developing methods to detect such concerted genomic convergence, and understand the circumstances in which traditional gene-level or amino-acid level dominates vs. those in which pathway-level convergence dominates, for example in cyanide adaptation in bamboo-specialized mammals, high altitude adaptation across bats, and the development of eco-morphs in Myotis bats.
Computational methods development - A common thread throughout our work is the development and rigorous testing of new computational methods. This includes deep learning-based methods to detect genomic signals of positive selection, Bayesian statistical methods to tease out ecological drivers of adaptation, and methods to improve reproducibility in simulations with the PopSim consortium.
Conservation and outreach - The lab is active in projects to better understand species of conservation concern, including benchmarking methods of calculating effective population size, investigating malaria exposure in cyanide-adapted lemurs, and working with Peruvian conservation non-profit Yunkawasi. In addition, the lab is committed to improving research access, experience, and success for students and researchers from underrepresented and underserved backgrounds. Lab members are encouraged to develop outreach and educational initiatives that align with their passions and social goals, with the broader mission of supporting diversity, community, and equity in science and conservation."
Area(s) of expertise
Evolutionary ecology, evolutionary genomics, population genetics, comparative genomics, computational methods development, bioinformatics, conservation genomics
Bio
"Life is dangerous - animals, plants, and other organisms must overcome myriad threats just to survive. We are interested in how organisms adapt to these threats, from infectious disease, to toxins, to climate change. The Lauterbur Evo-Eco lab takes an integrative approach, combining methods and theory from ecology and evolutionary biology in the context of natural ecosystems, often including developing new computational and statistical methods.
Current topics include:
Impacts of ecological conditions on virus exposure - Climate change is having major effects on patterns of pathogen prevalence globally, but traditional disease ecological models are limited in scope for understanding these effects across time, pathogen and host diversity, and ecological conditions. We use signals of adaptation in the host genome to identify past pathogen exposure, and develop Bayesian statistical models to understand the impact of ecological (environmental and life history) factors among and within host species. Bats provide our primary study system, and the lab is part of the Bat1K consortium and active in multiple Bat1K and GBatNet working groups.
Pathogen exposure and pathogen release during species invasions - What contributes to the success of an invasive species and the decline of a native species? The enemy release hypothesis proposes that the success of invasive species in their new ranges may be a result of leaving old enemies behind in their native ranges, while the novel weapons hypothesis proposes that invasive species can bring with them weapons that harm the fitness of native species. Pathogens serve double-duty, both as an enemy that can be left behind, and as a weapon that can be introduced. The invasion process and timing of "Old World" rodents into New England is historically well documented and provides an exciting system in which to combine host genomic adaptation, museum sampling, and analysis of historical records to ask questions about the importance of infectious disease in species invasions.
The dynamics of gene duplication as a mechanism of adaptation to joint threats - Gene duplications are a major evolutionary force that provide novel evolutionary material, impact protein dosage, and as a result may be an important contributor to adaptation, especially in cases in which pleiotropy may pull adaptive trajectories in different directions. We are interested in developing and improving methods to 1. identify copy number variants in resequencing data; 2. detect signals of adaptive duplication vs. neutral duplication dynamics, and 3. associated copy number variation with ecological context in natural systems.
Concerted genomic convergence - Ecological threats, such as toxin exposure and high altitude, can present similar fitness challenges across diverse species. The patterns and processes of convergent evolution are widely studied at the scale of amino acids and individual genes, but the nature of interacting gene networks means that, in some cases, different genes can adapt with similar impacts on the activity of the network they comprise. In addition, in many cases there is a suite of metabolic pathways or networks that must adapt in order to mitigate the systemic fitness effects of an ecological threat. We are therefore developing methods to detect such concerted genomic convergence, and understand the circumstances in which traditional gene-level or amino-acid level dominates vs. those in which pathway-level convergence dominates, for example in cyanide adaptation in bamboo-specialized mammals, high altitude adaptation across bats, and the development of eco-morphs in Myotis bats.
Computational methods development - A common thread throughout our work is the development and rigorous testing of new computational methods. This includes deep learning-based methods to detect genomic signals of positive selection, Bayesian statistical methods to tease out ecological drivers of adaptation, and methods to improve reproducibility in simulations with the PopSim consortium.
Conservation and outreach - The lab is active in projects to better understand species of conservation concern, including benchmarking methods of calculating effective population size, investigating malaria exposure in cyanide-adapted lemurs, and working with Peruvian conservation non-profit Yunkawasi. In addition, the lab is committed to improving research access, experience, and success for students and researchers from underrepresented and underserved backgrounds. Lab members are encouraged to develop outreach and educational initiatives that align with their passions and social goals, with the broader mission of supporting diversity, community, and equity in science and conservation."
Areas of Expertise
Evolutionary ecology, evolutionary genomics, population genetics, comparative genomics, computational methods development, bioinformatics, conservation genomics