The Larson Lab team is honored to be awarded an NSF CAREER to study gene regulatory evolution of post-mating prezygotic barriers. We are excited for the next chapter in cricket hybrid zone research!
Emily and Erica collaborated with Anna Runemark at Lund University on this survey of gene expression in hybrids. This paper was made possible by support from the University of Denver Internationalization International Partnership & Development Grant and the Swedish Foundation for International Research and Higher Education (STINT).
Runemark A, Moore EM, and EL Larson. 2024. Hybridization and gene expression: beyond differentially expressed genes. Molecular Ecology. 00:e17303. https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.17303
Emily won the Lorraine Flaherty award at the TAGC24 conference for her presentation on parent-of-origin disruption of growth and metabolism. Congratulations Emily!
Erica collaborated with an amazing team to survey the scope and role of postmating prezygotic (PMPZ) barriers in speciation. This was a massive and comprehensive survey of the literature and should be a landmark paper for studies of PMPZ barriers!
Garlovsky MD, Whittington E, Albrecht T, Arenas-Castro H, Castillo DM, Keais GL; Larson EL, Moyle L, Plakke M, Reifová R, Snook RR, Ålund M, AAT Weber. 2023. Synthesis and scope of the role of postmating prezygotic isolation in speciation. Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology. 15: a041429. https://doi.org/10.1101/cshperspect.a041429
60 crickets in two hours!
Congratulation to TJ Firneno, Gabrielle Welsh and Peter Nimlos for publishing a case study using field crickets to teach evolution students about phylogenetic trees.
Congratulation to Amy on publishing her first thesis chapter!
A great collaboration through the Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives on Speciation - lead by Zach Gompert and TJ Firneno.
“On September 4, 2023, the sky cleared over Nynäshamn, Sweden, and researchers from across the globe gathered for the 16th Biology of Spermatozoa (BoS) meeting. What followed was a week fuelled by tasty food (find out below about the gelato!) and beautiful weather discussing sperm, eggs, reproductive fluids, fertility, and all things reproductive evolution.”
Whittington, Emma, and M. Alund. "Sperm, eggs, pollen, and gelato, oh my!." Molecular Reproduction and Development(2023).
TJ is leading a massive field effort between the Larson and Firneno Labs! Below are a few photos from their various trips across the field cricket hybrid zone.
Erica and Emily traveled to Lund, Sweden to visit the Runemark Lab and work on a publication with Anna. They enjoyed a traditional Swedish crayfish party and a tour of Scania.
Gabrielle, Scott and Lauren went to Cricket Course, a five-day workshop at the Archbold Biological Station in Florida that provided hands-on training in identification, ecology, behavior, and bioacoustics of crickets. The Larson and Tinghitella Lab team learned taxonomy and bioacoustics, and received training in ensiferan collection, rearing, recording, song analysis, species identification, and pinning.
Camille presents her research on animal weapon evolution in rhinoceros beetles at SMBE 2023.
Lauren presents her research on copulation duration in leaf beetles at the spring Undergraduate Research Symposium.
Alyson Emery received and NSF INTERN award to participate in research through the Denver Botanic Gardens with Dr. April Goebl.
Doug Emlen visited DU as distinguished Long Lecture, hosted by Robin Tinghitella. It was a few days of great research conversations, a visit to the Denver Muesum of Nature and Science and two excellent presentations from Doug.
Camille and TJ presented their research at the ASN 2003 meeting at Asilomar.
The Larson Lab, Taylor Lab (University of Colorado Boulder), Runemark Lab (Lund University), and Velotta Lab (University of Denver) had a fall research retreat at CU’s Mountain Research Station. Everyone presented their research, cooked lots of great food and carved pumpkins.
Erica was interviewed by National Geographic for the article “Ligers, zorses, and pizzlies: How animals hybrids happen” by Jason Bittel.
“When you have two species whose genomes have undergone independent evolution for hundreds of thousands of years, and then you bring them back together, and you mix up those genomes in the form of a hybrid,” says Larson, “you get to understand what works and what doesn't.”