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lab profile
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Kimberly Hughes Florida State University
Department of Biological Science
Tallahassee, FL 32306
US
kahughes@bio.fsu.edu
850-645-8553
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| PI: |
YES |
| Taxa Studied: |
Invertebrate Animals, Vertebrate Animals |
| Techniques Employed: |
Quantitative PCR (qPCR), Microarrays, 454 Pyrosequencing, Solexa (Illumina) Sequencing, Bioinformatics/Sequence Analysis, QTL Mapping, SNP Mapping, In Situ Hybridization, RNA interference(RNAi), Transgenesis, Laser-capture micro-dissection for RNA sequencing |
| Research Description: |
My lab conducts research in ecological, evolutionary, and behavioral genomics. A unifying theme in this research is an attempt to understand why individuals within species are so diverse. A superficial understanding of evolution by natural selection would suggest that that individual diversity, especially genetic diversity, should be eroded by natural selection, especially for traits that are closely tied to overall fitness. What we observer, however, is that traits like fecundity, mating success, reproductive behavior, sexually selected ornamental traits, and lifespan are genetically variable even within local populations. We use a variety of organisms and approaches to resolve this seeming paradox. Currently, some of our favorite topics are: Female mating preference for novel male color patterns in guppies. Genetic and social modifiers of aggression and other ‘personality’ traits in mosquitofish; Extreme genetic diversity in male color and size in guppies and other poeciliid fish; The genomic basis of courtship plasticity in sailfin mollies; Genetics and genomics of aging and life history evolution in flies; Genetics and genomics of courtship and sexual selection in flies. |
| Lab Web Page: |
http://www.bio.fsu.edu/kahughes/Hughes_Lab_Home_Page.html |
| Willing to Host Undergraduates: |
YES |
| Actively Seeking Undergraduates: |
YES |
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