The Larson Lab is starting a new collaboration with Drs. Martin Garlovsky and Tim Karr to map protein abundance in hybridizing crickets. We were lucky to host Martin this September. During his visit we all attended the Guild of the Rocky Mountain Ecologists and Evolutionary Biologists meeting (GREEBs) at the University of Colorado Mountain Research Station, Martin presented at our department seminar, and we collected tons of cricket spermatophores for protein analysis.
A great collaboration through the Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives on Speciation - lead by Zach Gompert and TJ Firneno.
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.
Elise Gellman will be staying with the Larson Lab as a research technician over the next year through support from the NSF Research Experience for Post-Baccalaureate Students (REPs) program. Welcome back Elise!
Congratulations to NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Biology - TJ Firneno!
Erica, Robin Tinghitella and Luana Maroja were awarded an NSF Rules of Life grant to study the evolution of variable species boundaries in field crickets. As part of our public education efforts, Julie Morris will be helping us organize Nature Challenges on singing insects. The team is excited to get started!
Erica and Kelsie were awarded a grant from Jefferson County to study three species of cottontail rabbit in the Denver area. This grant is a collaboration with Dr. John Demboski at the Denver Muesum of Nature and Science. Kelsie is ready to get to the DMNS and get started!
Uma Knaven was just awarded a Partners in Scholarship (PinS) Award to support her research project with Kelsie Hunnicutt to sequence mitochondrial DNA in Denver rabbits.
Erica, Robin Tinghitella and Scott Taylor have a new review on the impacts of climate change on temperature sensitive reproductive barriers in insects. Check out the open-access article in Frotiners of Ecology and Evolution (here)
Our hybridizing Chrysochus beetles are featured on the cover of the Journal of Evolutionary Biology!
Erica’s review with Robin Tinghitella and Scott Taylor on insect hybridization and climate change is accepted at Frontiers Ecology and Evolution! Abstract here.
Our Chrysochus hybrid zone paper was accepted at the Journal of Evolutionary Biology. We provide a direct link between cryptic barriers studied in the lab over a range of heterospecific mating frequencies, and hybrid zone dynamics.
Insights from genomes into the evolutionary importance and prevalence of hybridization in nature https://rdcu.be/bi1Ea
