A5005203125- Ichthyology and Marine Biology
- Genetic diversity and population structure
- Identification and Quantification in Food
- Marine and fisheries research
- Coral and Marine Ecosystems Studies
- Fish biology, ecology, and behavior
- Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies
- Isotope Analysis in Ecology
- Evolution and Paleontology Studies
- Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology
- Fish Biology and Ecology Studies
- Marine Biology and Ecology Research
- Parasite Biology and Host Interactions
- Fish Ecology and Management Studies
- Aquaculture disease management and microbiota
- Machine Learning in Bioinformatics
- Coastal and Marine Management
- Invertebrate Immune Response Mechanisms
- Oil Spill Detection and Mitigation
- Marine Ecology and Invasive Species
- Microtubule and mitosis dynamics
- Cephalopods and Marine Biology
- Animal Behavior and Reproduction
- Genetic and Clinical Aspects of Sex Determination and Chromosomal Abnormalities
- Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
Texas A&M University at Galveston
2015-2024
Louisiana State University
2009-2024
American Museum of Natural History
2012-2023
Yale University
2012-2023
Yale Peabody Museum
2014
Field Museum of Natural History
2012
University of Michigan–Flint
2012
Arizona State University
2012
University of California, Davis
2012
Beneficial Designs (United States)
2012
Ray-finned fishes make up half of all living vertebrate species. Nearly ray-finned are teleosts, which include most commercially important fish species, several model organisms for genomics and developmental biology, the dominant component marine freshwater faunas. Despite economic scientific importance fishes, lack a single comprehensive phylogeny with corresponding divergence-time estimates has limited our understanding evolution diversification this radiation. Our analyses, use multiple...
Spiny-rayed fishes, or acanthomorphs, comprise nearly one-third of all living vertebrates. Despite their dominant role in aquatic ecosystems, the evolutionary history and tempo acanthomorph diversification is poorly understood. We investigate pattern lineage acanthomorphs by using a well-resolved time-calibrated phylogeny inferred from nuclear gene supermatrix that includes 520 species 37 fossil age constraints. This provides resolution for what has been classically referred to as “bush at...
The perciform group Labroidei includes approximately 2600 species and comprises some of the most diverse successful lineages teleost fishes. Composed four major clades, Cichlidae, Labridae (wrasses, parrotfishes, weed whitings), Pomacentridae (damselfishes), Embiotocidae (surfperches); labroids have been an icon for studies biodiversity, adaptive radiation, sexual selection. success diversification largely attributed to presence a innovation in pharyngeal jaw apparatus, pharyngognathy, which...
Cichlid fishes are a key model system in the study of adaptive radiation, speciation and evolutionary developmental biology. More than 1600 cichlid species inhabit freshwater marginal marine environments across several southern landmasses. This distributional pattern, combined with parallels between phylogeny sequences Mesozoic continental rifting, has led to widely accepted hypothesis that cichlids an ancient group whose major biogeographic patterns arose from Gondwanan vicariance. Although...
Flatfish cranial asymmetry represents one of the most remarkable morphological innovations among vertebrates, and has fueled vigorous debate on manner rate at which strikingly divergent phenotypes evolve. A surprising result many recent molecular phylogenetic studies is lack support for flatfish monophyly, where increasingly larger DNA datasets up to 23 loci have either yielded a weakly supported clade or indicated group polyphyletic. Lack resolution relationships been attributed analytical...
Mitochondrial and nuclear sequence data should recover historical demographic events at different temporal scales due to differences in their effective population sizes substitution rates. This expectation was tested for two closely related coral reef fish, the tube blennies Acanthemblemaria aspera A. spinosa. These have similar life histories dispersal potentials, co-occur throughout Caribbean. Sequence one mitochondrial markers were collected 168 individuals across species' Caribbean...
The past decade has witnessed remarkable progress towards resolution of the Tree Life. However, despite increased use genomic scale datasets, some phylogenetic relationships remain difficult to resolve. Here we employ anchored phylogenomics capture 107 nuclear loci in 29 species acanthomorph teleost fishes, with 25 these sampled from recently delimited clade Ovalentaria. Previous studies employing multilocus exon datasets have not been able resolve nodes at base Ovalentaria tree confidence....
Lysozymes are enzymes that lyse bacterial cell walls, an activity widely used for host defense but also modified in some instances digestion. The biochemical and evolutionary changes between these different functional forms has been well-studied the c-type lysozymes of vertebrates, less so i-type prevalent most invertebrate animals. Some bivalve molluscs possess both defensive digestive lysozymes. We report a third lysozyme from oyster Crassostrea virginica, cv-lysozyme 3. chemical...
The mitochondrial DNA of corals and their anthozoan kin evolves slowly, with substitution rates about two orders magnitude lower than in typical bilateral animals. This has impeded the delineation closely related species isolated populations corals, compounding problems caused by high morphological plasticity. Here we characterize divergence levels variation for three nuclear gene regions, then use these sequences as markers to test population structure Oculina, a taxonomically confused...
One of the most striking biodiversity patterns is uneven distribution marine species richness, with diversity in Indo-Australian Archipelago (IAA) exceeding all other areas. However, IAA formed fairly recently, and hotspots have shifted across nearly half globe since Paleogene. Understanding how lineages responded to shifting represents a necessary historic perspective on formation maintenance global biodiversity. Such evolutionary inferences are often challenged by lack fossil evidence that...
Abstract Background Genes involved in immune functions, including pathogen recognition and the activation of innate defense pathways, are among most genetically variable known, proteins that they encode often characterized by high rates amino acid substitutions, a hallmark positive selection. The levels variation characteristic immunity genes make them useful tools for conservation genetics. To date, highly have yet to be found corals, keystone organisms world's diverse marine ecosystem,...
Living reef fishes are one of the most diverse vertebrate assemblages on Earth. Despite its prominence and ecological importance, origins assembly fish fauna is poorly described. A patchy fossil record suggests that major colonization habitats must have occurred in Late Cretaceous early Palaeogene, with earliest known modern coral assemblage dated to 50 Ma. Using a phylogenetic approach, we analysed evolutionary dynamics fishes. We find lineages successively colonized throughout Palaeogene....
The pelagic Gulf of Mexico (GoM) is a complex system dynamic physical oceanography (western boundary current, mesoscale eddies), high biological diversity, and community integration via diel vertical migration lateral advection. Humans also heavily utilize this system, including its deep-sea components, for resource extraction, shipping, tourism, other commercial activity. This utilization has had impacts, some with disastrous consequences. Deepwater Horizon oil spill (DWHOS) occurred at...
We identified a group of actin-binding–bundling proteins that are expressed in cerebellar Purkinje cells (PCs) but not detected other neurons the CNS. These novel isoforms actin-bundling protein espin arise through use unique site for transcriptional initiation and differential splicing. Light electron microscopic localization studies demonstrated these enriched dendritic spines PCs. They were head neck association with postsynaptic density (PSD) synaptic contact parallel or climbing fibers....
Demographic histories are frequently a product of the environment, as populations expand or contract in response to major environmental changes, often driven by changes climate. Meso- and bathy-pelagic fishes inhabit some most temporally spatially stable habitats on planet. The stability deep-pelagic could make resistant demographic instability commonly reported fish species inhabiting other marine habitats, however unknown. We reconstructed historical demography 11 using mitochondrial...
Abstract The deep waters of the open ocean represent a major frontier in exploration and scientific understanding. However, modern technological computational tools are making more accessible than ever before by facilitating increasingly sophisticated studies ecosystems. Here, we describe some cutting-edge technologies that have been employed Deep Pelagic Nekton Dynamics Gulf Mexico (DEEPEND; <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"...