Conservation Genetics, Systematics and Transposable Elements

Our lab works to investigate the patterns and rates of change of DNA sequence on autosomes and sex chromosomes of birds. This data is being collected in order to clarify the influence of the number of replicative rounds of division on the rate of DNA sequence divergence among vertebrates. Another major pursuit centers around population and phylogenetic studies of extant and extinct vertebrates. In performing these studies, researchers use a wide variety of molecular biological tools.