We are very happy to announce the mangrove rivulus (Kryptolebias marmoratus) genome has been published in GBE. The paper can be found online [linked here]. This is the culmination of several years of sequencing, annotating and analyzing. We are very happy to present this resource to the community. The data can be accessed on NCBI GenBank accession LHSH00000000. This is an exciting and interesting species and we hope the genome facilitates all areas of research involving K. marmoratus and teleosts more generally.

Congratulations to Michael Saxton for becoming a PhD Candidate! Michael Saxton passed his qualifying exam and his proposal defense! Congratulations to Michael for completing these just weeks prior to your Alaska adventure!

Congratulations to Anthony Brown for passing his qualifying exam! Anthony is now a PhD Candidate!

Congratulations to Kayla Cribbin for presenting her Honors Thesis! Kayla’s Honors Thesis is titled: Sequencing the Transcriptome of the Tropical Gar and Measuring Differential Expression between Males and Females. She did a great job! Kayla received a Pass with Distinction on her Honors Thesis.

Congratulations to Alex Fraik who has been selected to receive a 2016 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship!

The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based Master’s and doctoral degrees at accredited United States institutions.

In Alex’s words: “For my dissertation, I propose to determine how adaptive genomic variation varies spatially across the geographic range of the Tasmanian devil. I will use genome scan methods to identify candidate loci that are targets of selection in devil populations. Using statistical outlier test I will identify loci in devils associated with tumor haplotype to test for adaptation of disease strain to host genome. I will conduct RNA-sequencing on samples collected across environmental gradients and on devils infected with different tumor strains to determine if there are differences in gene expression indicative of clinal adaptation to local environments, and association of tumor strain to host genomes, respectively.”

Joanna Kelley participates in NIMBIOS Computational Landscape Genomics Working Group. We had a very productive working group at NIMBIOS discussing current challenges and opportunities in Landscape Genomics.

The National Science Foundation has funded our project studying how fishes adapt to hydrogen sulfide rich springs. We will compare closely related populations that live in adjacent sulfidic or nonsulfidic habitats to identify differences in genetic, biochemical, and physiological traits that underlie tolerance to H₂S. This project is in collaboration with Michael Tobler (Kansas State University) and Jennifer Shaw (Oklahoma State University).

We have been working with Michael Tobler‘s lab at Kansas State University to understand the molecular basis of adaptation to hydrogen sulfide springs. We sequenced and analyzed transcriptomes from multiple populations of sulfide spring fishes. We sampled fish in the genus Poecilia from mulitple, replicated clear and sulfidic springs. The results of the study have recently been published in Molecular Biology and Evolution! A variety of news sources have covered our findings, including Scientific American Español.

Graduate student Anthony Brown and I attended Ecological Genomics 2015 in Manhattan, Kansas #EGSym2015. It was a fantastic conference. The organizers planned the conference very well and considered all aspects for planning a successful conference. The talks were all stellar and ranged from senior faculty to graduate students, organisms, and approaches (see the line-up here: http://ecogen.k-state.edu/symposia/2015%20schedule%20final.pdf). The two poster sessions similarly highlighted diverse research. It was a pleasure to have my abstract invited for a presentation. See you next year in Kansas City, Oct 28-30th!

Happy Halloween! It’s an exciting day in the lab!