Evolutionary biology

David Baltrus (PhD) is broadly interested in understanding how bacterial evolution is shaped by interactions with other organisms. Questions investigated by the Baltrus lab range from asking how evolutionary events such as the transfer of genes between microbes affects the development of antibiotic resistance to testing how microbiomes impact the development and physiology of plants and animals. The lab approaches these questions by using a variety of existing tools, from screening for mutants using "toothpicks and agar plates" to experimental evolution to comparative genomics. However, Dr. Baltrus is also highly interested in developing new tools that enable sequencing and tracking of bacterial populations and communities of interest (like potential pathogens) in real time under natural conditions.

Alex Badyaev’s research focus is at the interface of evolutionary developmental biology and evolutionary ecology, with specific focus on the understanding of the origin of adaptations. The central goal of his work is to understand the evolution of organismal architecture that reconciles innovation and adaptation. Under this general umbrella, Badyaev lab studies the following empirical themes: 1) Origin, development, and evolution of avian color diversity, 2) Epigenetic remodeling and genetic adaptation in ontogeny of skeletal structures, 3) Relationship between epigenetic and genetic inheritance systems, 4) Role of stress in origin and diversification of organismal forms, 5) Evolution of behavioral and life history strategies, and 6) Evolution and ecology of sexual size dimorphism.

Zhongguo Xiong, PhD, is an associate professor in the School of Plant Sciences, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at the University of Arizona, and a faculty member in the Undergraduate Program of Microbiology. Dr. Xiong is a 2012 winner of the Bill Gates and Melinda Foundation Grand Challenges Explorations in Global Health, and has more than 20 years of research experience on RNA viruses of important crops and native plant species. Dr. Xiong research encompasses a wide range of subjects that include virus diversity, recombination, RNAi suppression, host resistance and resistance-breaking, replication and movement of RNA viruses, and how all these are related to the control and management of viral diseases. He was one of the first researchers to discover ribosomal frameshifting as a gene expression mechanism in plant RNA viruses and to demonstrate recombination between transgene mRNA and genomic RNA of an infecting virus. His recent research on Citrus tristeza virus has revealed its genome stability, unusual for an RNA virus, and the promiscuous recombination between viral strains as the major factor driving Citrus tristeza virus evolution. His recent collaboration with Dr. Martha Hawes has led to the discovery that extracellular DNA, secreted DNases, and proteins are important immunity and pathogenicity factors in the plant-microbe interactions in the rhizosphere. Dr. Xiong has strong ongoing international collaborations on emerging viral diseases of tomato, pepper, papaya, and banana. His recent research interests include genome editing to engineer immunity against viral infection and using the next generation sequencing to explore viral population genomics and genetic diversity and to discover new viruses and novel viral strains.

Bruce Walsh is a Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona and also a Professor in the College of Public Health. He is also an Adjunct Professor in the Departments of Animal Sciences, Plant Sciences, and Molecular and Cellular Biology, and the former Chair of two Graduate Interdisciplinary Programs: Genetics and Statistics. Dr. Walsh is internationally known for his work on the genetics of complex traits, and is coauthor of the leading graduate text on Quantitative Genetics. He is a frequently-invited speaker at national and international meetings, being a keynote speaker at the last Two World Congresses in Quantitative Genetics (China and Scotland) as well as at the most recent Gordon Conference in Quantitative Genetics. Dr. Walsh routinely teaches several international graduate/ post-graduate courses each year in areas ranging from animal and plant breeding, to evolutionary genetics, to human applications, and has taught in Australia, Belgium, China, Costa Rica, Denmark, Finland, Holland, Korea, New Zealand, Portugal, Scotland, and Sweden in additional to numerous domestic short courses. Most recently, in conjunction with BIO5, he has started the Tucson Winter Institute in Plant Breeding, whose propose is to train academic and industry plant breeders from around the world in the latest techniques in genomics, statistics, and bioinformatics as they relate to improving plant production. Keywords: "Statistical Genetics" "plant and animal breeding"

I am an integrative microbial ecologist with training in microbial ecology, evolutionary biology, mycology, and genomics. I am an Assistant Professor of Ecosystem Genomics in the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering and the BIO5 Institute. I completed a BA in Biological Sciences from the University of Missouri-Columbia and my PhD in Plant Pathology from University of Arizona’s School of Plant Sciences. Keywords: plant-microbe interactions, comparative genomics, microbial ecology, fungal endophytes

Sadhana Ravishankar, PhD, focuses on the stress response in foodborne pathogenic bacteria, including methods of pathogen control and natural antimicrobials. In the lab, Dr. Ravishankar attempts to control foodborne pathogenic bacteria including antibiotic resistant strains using various technologies and multiple hurdle approaches. Natural antimicrobials and their applications in various foods, antimicrobial and anti-oxidative activities of plant compounds also interest her. Bacterial attachment, biofilm formation and their control along with stress tolerance responses of foodborne pathogenic bacteria, and mechanisms of stress response in bacteria are some other subjects of research for Dr. Ravishankar’s lab.

Research in Dr. McMahon's lab focuses on the analysis of biological diversity, particularly through phylogenetic systematics of plants. Lab-based work includes comparative molecular sequencing, aimed at inferring evolutionary relationships among lineages in the legume family (Fabaceae), and using the resulting phylogenies to infer historical rates and modes of floral morphological evolution. Computational research includes testing data from public molecular sequence databases for the ability to construct large-scale phylogenetic trees for all 1.7 million known species, investigating theoretical limits to phylogenetic inference, and developing software for analyzing the effects of fragmentation in phylogenetic and phylogenomic data sets

Our lab investigates how the ecology of a species shapes patterns of variation at multiple levels (genes, pathways, transcriptomes, genomes, physiology, behavior and life history), how populations adapt to environmental shifts (natural or human created), how genetic architecture can dictate the evolutionary trajectory of populations, the implication of ecological adaptation in the process of speciation and the role of sexual selection and sexual conflict in the evolution of reproductive incompatibilities. Our research revolves around these fundamental aspects of evolutionary biology. We work on a group of cactophilic Drosophila that inhabit the deserts of North America. These Drosophila species are an excellent system to study given that their ecology is well understood and the fact that we can perform many genetic, genomic, manipulative and life history experiments. In addition to utilizing the cactophilic Drosophila system we have ongoing projects on the agrigenomics of the agricultural pests, Drosophila suzukii (spotted wing Drosophila) and Helicoverpa zea (corn earworm). Keywords: Evolutionary, ecological and agricultural genomics

Joanna Masel, D.Phil., is a Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, applying the tools of theoretical population genetics to diverse research problems. Her research program is divided between analytical theory, evolutionary simulations, and dry lab empirical bioinformatic work. The robustness and evolvability of living systems are major themes in her work, including questions about the origins of novelty, eg at the level of new protein-coding sequences arising during evolution from "junk" DNA. She also has interests in prion biology, and in the nature of both biological and economic competitions. She has won many awards, including a Fellowship at Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, a Pew Scholarship in the Biomedical Sciences, an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow, a Rhodes Scholarship, and a Bronze Medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad.

The Gutenkunst group studies the function and evolution of the complex molecular networks that comprise life. To do so, they integrate computational population genomics, bioinformatics, and molecular evolution. They focus on developing new computational methods to extract biological insight from genomic data and applying those methods to understand population history and natural selection.