I have been involved with development of a method that uses the phylogeny of DNA segments to differentiate historical events like range expansions from population structure phenomena like ongoing gene flow (Templeton, A.R., E.J. Routman, and C.A. Phillips. 1995. Separating population structure from population history: A cladistic analysis of the geographical distribution of mitochondrial DNA haplotypes in Ambystoma tigrinum. Genetics. 140: 767-782.). This discrimination has been a major goal of population genetics and biogeography, and, using the new method, my lab is currently investigating several species of salamanders and fish. The proper implementation of this technique requires sequencing of genes from large numbers (one thousand or more) of individuals for each species. Students in my lab also test hypotheses about the biogeography of particular regions by using genetic relationships among populations (as in the "mitochondrial Eve" controversy). In all of these projects, students participate in DNA extraction, PCR, sequencing, and data analysis using the latest algorithms.

Sample projects suitable for junior/senior honors projects include:

Intraspecific variation in mtDNA and/or fibrinogen intron DNA sequences in five species of frogs from the central U.S.: a test of the nested cladistic method. (each student would work on only a single gene from a single species)

Relationships among populations of river-dwelling organisms from the Mississippi River drainage: why don't the phylogenies agree?

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Last modified July 10, 2002