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| Genetics Program |
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| Genetics Program |
Biology of Small Populations Research Training Grant Fellow National Science Foundation Predoctoral Fellow
My thesis project concentrates on four species of temperate penguins (genus Spheniscus) and the effects of serial bottlenecks on their rate of molecular evolution. The most extremely bottlenecked population in my study is the endangered Galapagos penguins, whose numbers can decrease by as much as 77% during severe El Nino events. On the opposite end of the spectrum is the Magellanic penguin, whose enormous colonies and more southerly habitat protect it from such extreme effects. I am using a combination of mitochondrial loci and microsatellite markers that I developed for all four species to examine the rate of molecular evolution.
On the more ecological side, I am using my microsatellite markers to investigate
the frequency of extra pair fertilizations in the Magellanic penguin. Magellanic
penguins mate with the same partner for years at a time, while in the field
I never observed an extra pair copulation.
BS Environmental Biology, Yale University
In March 2000, Stacey Lance, Robert Fleischer and I ran a microsatellite development workshop at the National Zoo's Genetics Program. This workshop was supported by the University of Maryland-Smithsonian Research Training Grant in Small Population Biology from NSF. We had 10 students come to the lab for ten days to develop microsatellites in their species of interest [download PDF].
Revision: October 2001