David Lowry
About Me
I am a third year graduate student in the University Program in Genetics and Genomics, who hails from the redwood empire and wine country of Northern California. I spent 4.5 years of long latte-drinking nights at UC Berkeley during the exuberant boom and sizzling crash of the dot-com era. After college, I set out to explore the finer delights of world cultures and wildlife before joining the grind of graduate school. Alas, my time at Duke has been good to me thanks to many fantastic people and my recklessly optimistic leader/advisor, Dr. Johh Willis.
The focus of my research can be catch phrased as the genetics of adaptation and speciation. In order to address this topic, I have chosen to study how divergent adaptation of the yellow monkey flower (Mimulus guttatus), to the coast versus inland habitat, contributes to reproductive isolation. I am using a combination of QTL mapping, candidate gene strategies, and microarrays (yes, we will get there) to determine the genetic mechanisms that underlie the divergence of morphological and life-history traits between coast and inland Mimulus. Further, I have carried out reciprocal transplant experiments and population genetic analysis to demonstrate that coast and inland Mimulus are locally adapted and reproductively isolated. In the future, I plan on creating near isogenic lines, with QTLs of large effect, for field experiments to test hypotheses of adaptation and ecogeographic reproductive isolation.
Check out my poster from the genetics of speciation conference: File:Poster Speciation.pdf
Also, check out the Mimulus Community.
Bioinformatic Software and Resources
Population Genetic Software
- FSTAT
- Tassel
- Arlequin
- Structure
- Mark Beaumont
- Genepop (web)
- Dyerlab (Population Graphs)
- Isolation by Distance
- Genetic Data Analysis
- Software for Populaiton Genetic Analysis
- Ian Wilson (Batwing)
- Jody Hey (SITES)
- Structurama
- DNASP
- SNAP
Field Sites
United States
- Copperopolis
- Montana de Oro State Park
- Big Creek Reserve
- Bodega Marine Lab
- Angelo Reserve
- Redwood National Park
- Saddle Mountain
Canada
Friends
Quotes
"There is keen delight in the quick experience, of knowing that no harm comes of a wetting at high canon wall, slips up behind the ridge to cross it by some windy broad-leaved hellebore, and beat down the mimulus beside the brook." -Mary Austin
