Dissertation Research: Unraveling the genetic basis for complex life-history traits in natural populations of garter snakes

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How an individual responds to environmental stress (temperature changes, toxins, disease, social interactions) affects how that individual acts, its ability to reproduce, and its lifespan. Therefore, it is important to understand how the genetic make-up of an individual determines how it responds to stress; and how populations evolve in response to their environmental conditions. This project addresses these questions using natural snake populations that consist of either slow-living (low reproduction, extended lifespan) or fast-living (high reproduction, shortened lifespan) individuals who respond to environmental stresses in different ways, but only slightly differ in genetic make-up. Stress experiments on these populations are used to characterize their physiological differences in stress response. New DNA sequencing technologies are then used to identify the underlying genes that allow them to respond to stress in different ways. Once these genes have been identified, they are explored further to understand how they have changed in the different populations that have been living under different environmental conditions.This research will help us to understand what genes are important for stress response in natural populations, and how they evolve in response to different environmental stress conditions. Many of the genes investigated here are involved in metabolism, diabetes and aging. Because animals share many of the same genes with only slight differences, experiments using snakes populations that naturally differ in reproduction, lifespan and stress response can help us to understand the genes responsible for these traits in many animal species, including livestock and humans.