Kelsie’s beautiful work comparing testes expression in F1 hybrid dwarf hamsters and mice is now out in Genetics! I am so proud of this paper!
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!
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
“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).
Erica attended the Biology of Spermatozoa meeting in Nynäshamn, Sweden. As always, it was a great meeting! Information about this unique meeting is available HERE.
Our paper won the 2018 GENETICS Editors’ Choice Award for Population Genetics!
The Evolution of Polymorphic Hybrid Incompatibilities in House Mice
Erica L. Larson, Dan Vanderpool, Brice A. J. Sarver, Colin Callahan, Sara Keeble, Lorraine L. Provencio, Michael D. Kessler, Vanessa Stewart, Erin Nordquist, Matthew D. Dean, and Jeffrey M. Good
Genetics July 2018 209: 845–859
Reproductive barriers are often assumed to arise from fixed genetic differences between species, despite frequent individual variation in the strength of reproductive isolation between populations. Larson et al. report polymorphism at several hybrid male sterility loci in house mice, and their results demonstrate that selection against deleterious hybrid interactions can drive the introgression of hybrid incompatibilities, highlighting the need for more extensive sampling of natural variation in speciation studies.
Automated Nuclear Cartography Reveals Conserved Sperm Chromosome Territory Localization across 2 Million Years of Mouse Evolution
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4425/10/2/109
The second installment of our collaboration with Peter Ellis' group to quantify sperm nuclear morphology in classic and wild mice. A great paper lead by Ben Skinner. Preprint
Spermatogenesis and the Evolution of Mammalian Sex Chromosomes
Erica L. Larson, Emily E.K. Kopania, and Jeffrey M. Good
Developmental constraint and sexual conflict shape the evolution of hetero- morphic sex chromosomes. These contrasting forces are perhaps strongest during spermatogenesis in species with XY males. In this review, we consider how the unique regulatory environment and selective pressures of spermato- genesis interact to impact sex chromosome evolution in mammals. We explore how each developmental phase of spermatogenesis influences sex chromo- some gene content, structure, and rate of molecular evolution, and how these attributes may contribute to speciation. We argue that a developmental context is fundamental to understanding sex chromosome evolution and that an evolutionary perspective can shed new light on our understanding of sperm development. PAPER
We review the Biology of Spermatozoa 2017 meeting, just in time to start planning on attending BoS 2019! Article Here
A collaboration with Peter Ellis' group to quantify sperm nuclear morphology in classic and wild mice. Preprint.
A high-throughput method for unbiased quantitation and categorisation of nuclear morphology
Benjamin Matthew Skinner, Claudia Cattoni Rathje, Joanne Bacon, Emma Elizabeth Philippa Johnson, Erica Lee Larson, Emily Emiko Konishi Kopania, Jeffrey Martin Good, Gullalaii Yousafzai, Nabeel Ahmed Affara, Peter James Ivor Ellis
Re-thinking incompatibilities as fixed between species
The Evolution Of Polymorphic Hybrid Incompatibilities In House Mice
Erica L. Larson, Dan Vanderpool, Brice A. J. Sarver, Colin Callahan, Sara Keeble, Lorraine P. Provencio, Michael D. Kessler, Vanessa Stewart, Erin Nordquist, Matthew D. Dean and Jeffrey M. Good
