Kevin Wright: Difference between revisions
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==Research Interests== | |||
I am a graduate student at Duke University co-advised by Dr. Mark Rausher and Dr. John Willis. I am broadly interested in genetic architecture of adaptive traits. The evolution of copper tolerance in ''Mimulus guttatus'' populations inhabiting mines in Copperopolis, CA is a great system to study this because previous research has demonstrated that a single locus confers tolerance. [[David Lowry]] and I are collaborating with [http://www.ex.ac.uk/~MRMacnai/welcome.html Dr. Mark Macnair] to map this tolerance locus. I am also initiating a full QTL analysis to map loci which modify the strength of copper tolerance. I am interested in determining how these loci interact and affect fitness on the copper mine. I plan to conduct a reciprocal transplant experiment with NILs containing the major copper tolerance locus in a genetic background with and without additional modifier loci in a reciprocal transplant experiment. This experiment will test the fitness effects of adaptive loci in isolation and combination in the field. This experiment will improve how understanding how adaptive phenotypes affected by multiple loci evolve in natural populations. | I am a graduate student at Duke University co-advised by Dr. Mark Rausher and Dr. John Willis. I am broadly interested in genetic architecture of adaptive traits. The evolution of copper tolerance in ''Mimulus guttatus'' populations inhabiting mines in Copperopolis, CA is a great system to study this because previous research has demonstrated that a single locus confers tolerance. [[David Lowry]] and I are collaborating with [http://www.ex.ac.uk/~MRMacnai/welcome.html Dr. Mark Macnair] to map this tolerance locus. I am also initiating a full QTL analysis to map loci which modify the strength of copper tolerance. I am interested in determining how these loci interact and affect fitness on the copper mine. I plan to conduct a reciprocal transplant experiment with NILs containing the major copper tolerance locus in a genetic background with and without additional modifier loci in a reciprocal transplant experiment. This experiment will test the fitness effects of adaptive loci in isolation and combination in the field. This experiment will improve how understanding how adaptive phenotypes affected by multiple loci evolve in natural populations. | ||
Revision as of 20:21, 5 December 2006
Research Interests
I am a graduate student at Duke University co-advised by Dr. Mark Rausher and Dr. John Willis. I am broadly interested in genetic architecture of adaptive traits. The evolution of copper tolerance in Mimulus guttatus populations inhabiting mines in Copperopolis, CA is a great system to study this because previous research has demonstrated that a single locus confers tolerance. David Lowry and I are collaborating with Dr. Mark Macnair to map this tolerance locus. I am also initiating a full QTL analysis to map loci which modify the strength of copper tolerance. I am interested in determining how these loci interact and affect fitness on the copper mine. I plan to conduct a reciprocal transplant experiment with NILs containing the major copper tolerance locus in a genetic background with and without additional modifier loci in a reciprocal transplant experiment. This experiment will test the fitness effects of adaptive loci in isolation and combination in the field. This experiment will improve how understanding how adaptive phenotypes affected by multiple loci evolve in natural populations.
In collaboration with Mark Rausher, I am modeling the evolution of metabolic and developmental networks. I am interested in how natural selection on the products of these networks affects the genes comprising these networks. Metabolic pathways are highly interactive systems in which changes in upstream enzymes generate cascading effects throughout a system. Upstream enzymes have the greatest effect on the rate of flux through the pathway. Conversely, developmental networks are more buffered to perturbation because of the relationship between transcription factors and their target genes and the ubiquity of negative feedback loops. The genetic interactions in these networks affect how they respond to natural selection. In metabolic systems, adaptive genetic changes occur in upstream enzymes because downstream enzymes have little effect on metabolic flux. Genetic changes have more local effects in developmental networks, thus selection on a product of this network will result in changes in the genes directly generating that target.
Field Site
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copperopolis,_California
Publications
Wu, C. A., D. B. Lowry, A. M. Cooley, K. M. Wright, Y. W. Lee, and J. H. Willis. (2007). Mimulus is an emerging model system for the integration of ecological and genomic studies. Heredity In Press .
Kandul, N. P., K. M. Wright, E. V. Kandul, and M. A. F. Noor. 2006. No evidence for learned mating discrimination in male Drosophila pseudoobscura. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 6: 54.
Silander, O. K., D. M. Weinreich, K.M. Wright, K. J. O'Keefe, C. U. Rang, P. E. Turner, and L. Chao (2005). Widespread genetic exchange among terrestrial bacteriophages. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 102(52) 19009 - 14.
Education
BS. Ecology, Behavior and Evolution. University of Califonnia, San Diego. 2003.
Contact Information
kevin.wright@duke.edu
(919) 660-7223 Department of Biology Duke University, Box 90338 Durham, NC 27708-0338
