Dissertation Research: Ecological Genetics of a Cline in Adaptive Pigmentation

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The goal of this project is to identify the evolutionary factors responsible for maintaining color variation in natural populations of oldfield mice (Peromyscus polionotus) and to identify genes contributing to this adaptive coloration, which camouflages the mice from predators by matching dorsal coat color to soil color. A combination of quantitative and molecular tools will be used to examine museum specimens collected across ten populations along a 180km gradient of soil color to address the following questions: (1) how much pigmentation variation and gene flow occurs among populations across this ecological gradient, and (2) do genotypes at pigmentation genes correlate with variation in coat color? This research makes an explicit link between the environment, the organism and the underlying genetics to understand how organisms adapt to their environment.Results from this research will provide a clear demonstration of natural selection acting on pigmentation in wild populations. The broader impacts of this study will be: (1) to highlight the importance of museum collections in modern research, (2) to generate information useful for conservation and management of endangered populations of Peromyscus, and (3) to incorporate undergraduate education and public outreach into the scientific process.