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.
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
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 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.
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.
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.”
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!
Kelsie’s first chapter of her dissertation is now published in Evolution! Beautiful work and beautiful figures, now memorialized in her new mug! Congratulations Kelsie!
Exciting to see these new preprints online:
Kelsie’s first chapter of her dissertation - super proud of this one! https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.08.451646
An amazingly fun project with the awesome Mollie Manier: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.15.468624v1
A new paper on disrupted X chromosome expression in sterile mouse hybrids: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.12.468424v1
And two impressive collaborations led by the Good Lab at the University of Montana from Emily Kopania: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.04.455131v2 and from Emily Moore: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.15.468705v2
Happy to be a part of this re-visit/tribute to Felsenstein 1981 in Evolution, lead by Roger Butlin, Maria Servedio and Carole Smadja.
Erica and Kelsie reviewed Shrews, Chromosomes and Speciation edited by Jeremy B. Searle, P. David Polly and Jan Zima for Evolution. The review is online in early view.
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!