Lab News

Xu B., Sun G., Wang X., Lu J., Wang I.J.*, Wang Z.* (2017) Population genetic structure is shaped by historical, geographic, and environmental factors in the leguminous shrub Caragana microphylla on the Inner Mongolia Plateau of China. BMC Plant Biology, 17: 200. doi: 10.1186/s12870-017-1147-7 [* Indicates co-senior authorship.]

In collaboration with Jake Brenner (Ithaca College) and Van Butsic (UC Berkeley), Ian Wang has published a new paper in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment on the effects of cannabis grows on forest fragmentation in Northern California.  The paper quantifies the landscape impacts of expanding cannabis production and puts forward a new approach for analyzing the per-unit-area effects of emerging agricultural land-uses.  The study has already garnered a lot of attention in mainstream media, including Anthropocene Magazine and Vice.

Wang I.J., Brenner J.C., and Butsic V. (2017) An emerging agricultural crop leads to deforestation and fragmentation. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 15: 495-501. [pdf]

In collaboration with a great group of landscape geneticists, Ian has written a new book chapter on landscape genomics that will appear in the upcoming Population Genomics textbook.

Balkenhol N., Dudaniec R.Y., Krutovsky K.V., Johnson J.S., Cairns D.M., Segelbacher G., Selkoe K., von der Heyden S., Wang I.J., Selmoni O., and Joost S. (2017) Landscape genomics: understanding relationships between environmental heterogeneity and genomic characteristics of populations. in Rajora O.P. (Ed.) Population Genomics (pp.XX-XX). New York: Springer.

Allozymes once ruled the day but have now been all but replaced by modern genotypic markers. However, many collections of allozyme homegenates still exist, and for some species, particularly those of conservation concern, these collections may be the only sources of historical genetic material. Sequencing from allozyme homogenates has often come up short, but Mike Yuan has figured out a simple way to significantly improve sequencing success: just add some trehalose to your PCR reactions. His method is described in Conservation Genetics Resources.

Yuan M.L., Wogan G.O.U., and Wang I.J. (2017) Improved PCR amplification of vertebrate nuclear DNA from historical allozyme homogenates. Conservation Genetics Resources. doi: 10.1007/s12686-017-0811-4

Ian Wang and Brad Shaffer published a new paper on the compatibility of field ecological and population genetic estimates of dispersal and population size in pond breeding salamanders. The paper is now available in Evolutionary Applications.

Wang I.J. and Shaffer H.B. (2017) Population genetic and field-ecological analyses return similar estimates of dispersal over space and time in an endangered amphibian. Evolutionary Applications, 10: 630-639.

Mike Yuan just received a Grant-in-Herpetology from the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles for his project on the evolution of Anolis lizards.

Mike Yuan has been awarded a $2,000 grant from the MVZ’s Louise Kellog Fund, established in 1970 to enhance the MVZ collections. The award will support Mike’s work on morphological evolution in anoles.

Drew Hart has received a grant from Idea Wild to support his epiphyte research in Costa Rica this summer! The grant will be used to purchase a drone that Drew will use to collect epiphytes from the canopy in cloud forests.

Drew Hart has been awarded a Tinker Field Research Grant from the Center for Latin American Studies at UC Berkeley. The grant will support his summer field research in Costa Rica.

Mike Yuan was awarded a Rosemary Grant Research Award for $2,400 from the Society for the Study of Evolution.