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Arielle Cooley
Postdoctoral Fellow
Ph.D., Duke University, 2008
U-M affiliation
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
College of Literature, Science, and the Arts
Contact information
University of Michigan
1061 Kraus Natural Science Building
830 N. University
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1048
Phone: (734) 647-5483
Fax: (734) 763-0544
Email: amcooley@umich.edu |
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Fields of study
Evolutionary genetics and genomics
Mentor
Patricia Wittkopp
Research interests
Understanding the evolution of phenotypic diversity includes identifying the processes that drive change (such as mutation, selection, and drift) as well as the variation that those processes act on (at molecular, genetic, and organismal levels). The Wittkopp lab uses body-pigmentation differences within and between two closely related species, Drosophila americana and D. novamexicana, as a model for studying the evolutionary processes and the genetic and molecular variation that contribute to phenotypic diversification.
I am taking genetic and genomic approaches to examine the molecular underpinnings and adaptive significance of pigment evolution in D. americana and D. novamexicana. My focus is on the tan gene, which has been identified as a major component of interspecific body color differences, and may also contribute to variation within D. americana. I plan to use a series of transgenic constructs, composed of different segments of “dark” and “light” alleles of tan, to narrow down the causal region of tan, ideally to the nucleotide level. Once functional molecular variants have been identified, I hope to examine their geographic distribution in natural populations of D. americana. I will compare allele frequency distributions at tan to those of other loci across the genome, in order to identify patterns indicative of natural selection.
Select publications
Cooley, A.M., J.L. Modlizewski, M.L. Rommel, and J.H. Willis. Changes in gene regulation underlie flower color evolution in Mimulus cupreus. (in prep).
Cooley, A.M., and J.H. Willis. The genetic architecture of novel traits: Convergent evolution of floral color patterning in Chilean Mimulus. New Phytologist. (in press).
Cooley, A.M., G. Carvallo, and J.H. Willis. 2008. Is floral diversification associated with pollinator divergence? Flower shape, flower colour, and pollinator preference in Chilean Mimulus. Annals of Botany 101: 641-650.
Wu, C.A., D.B. Lowry, A.M. Cooley, K.M. Wright, Y.-W. Lee, and J.H. Willis. 2008. Mimulus is an emerging model system for the integration of ecological and genomic studies. Heredity 100: 220-230.
Cooley, A.M., A. Reich, and P. Rundel. 2004. Leaf support biomechanics of neotropical understory herbs. American Journal of Botany 91: 573-581.
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