Lab News

April 1, 2024 - Federico Ceriotti joins the lab as a visiting Ph.D. student

Fede will be visiting us for the next four months to work on the molecular evolution of tRNAs and interacting proteins in parasitic plants. He is joining us as part of a collaboration with Virginia Sanchez-Puerta's lab at IBAM-CONICET and Universidad Nacional de Cuyo in Mendoza, Argentina. Welcome!

February  13, 2024 - Jada Joseph and Jenna Marron joins the lab

Jada is working on mitonuclear interactions during associated with adaptation to high elevations in deer mice, and Jenna will be working on phylogenetic analysis of MutS gene family diversification in plants. Welcome!

March  21, 2024 - Gus Waneka defends his dissertation!

Congrats to Gus for a great Ph.D. defense! A very impressive body of research

November  12, 2023 - Preprint on mitochondrial DNA fragmentation

Check out Gus's new preprint analyzing mitochondrial DNA fragments of specific length profiles that arise in response to UV damage. These fragments might be products of a novel DNA repair pathway or genome degradation process in mitochondria!

September  18, 2023 - Patty Vail joins the lab

Patty has joined our lab as a Research Associate (and soon-to-be Ph.D. student) to work on modifying the fidelity of plant organellar DNA polymerases with genome editing approaches. Welcome!

September  12, 2023 - Candidate Shady!

Congratulations to Shady who did a great job defending her dissertation proposal and advanced to PhD candidacy!

September  7, 2023 - Silene conica genome preprint

Check out our new study led by Peter Fields, reporting an assembly of the Silene conica nuclear genome! The preprint is available on bioRxiv.

Update: This study has now been published in GBE.

August  2, 2023 - tRNA and aaRS evolution in parasitic plants

Check out Rachael's new pre-print on how the evolutionary transition to a non-photosynthetic lifestyle precipitates the loss of the specialized aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases that are normally responsible for charging mitochondrial and plastid tRNAs.

June  1, 2023 - Chris deRoux joins the lab

Chris deRoux will be joining our lab as a graduate student to investigate phylogenetic methods for measuring correlations in evolutionary rates. Welcome!

May 14, 2023 - Congratulations to some wonderful undergraduates!

Kalia, Braden, Janna, and Tony all graduated this week.  We have been lucky to work with such an outstanding group of students. We'll miss you!

March 23, 2023 - Rates of evolution in plant aaRS enzymes

Check out our recent paper on rates of amino acid substitutions in aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase (aaRS) enzymes in plants. Organellar aaRSs appear to be more highly conserved in plants than in other eukaryotes, perhaps because of the enormous demands on protein translation associated with photosynthesis in chloroplasts.

January 13, 2023 - Sloan Lab at PAG

Shady, Gus, Rachael, Amanda, and Dan all headed to the Plant and Animal Genome (PAG) conference in (not so) sunny San Diego to present our work. Check out our talks and posters if you're at the conference!

December 12, 2022 - aaRS subcellular targeting

Big update to our study led by Jess Warren on evolution of molecular interactions between mitochondrial tRNAs and the enzymes that charge them (aaRSs) in Silene. The revised preprint now includes fluorescence microscopy analysis of targeting (in collaboration with the Christensen lab at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln) as well as analysis of key identity elements for these interactions. Check it out!

Update: This paper is now published in Molecular Biology and Evolution.

November 1, 2022 - Preprint on interchangeability and incompatibility

Check out our new preprint of a review tackling the question of why some genes seem to be easily replaced by distantly related counterparts -- even after billions of years of divergence in some cases -- whereas others rapidly evolve incompatibilities and contribute to early stage of reproductive isolation. A fun group effort with current and former lab members!

Update: Our review was published in Genome Biology and Evolution.

Aug 2, 2022 - Welcome Justin!

Justin Conover has arrived for a 3-month stint as a visiting postdoc from the Wendel Lab at Iowa St. Welcome!

Aug 1, 2022 - Professor Forsythe!

Congrats to Evan, who has accepted a faculty position at Oregon State University - Cascades! He starts in January 2023!

June 21, 2022 - Rafting the Poudre

Thanks to rivermaster Evan for taking lab members out for a float down the Poudre River. Beautiful and bouncy ride!

July 1, 2022 - NIH T32 fellowship for Shady

Congrats again to Shady, this time for earning an NIH T32 predoctoral fellowship through the qCMB program!

April 4, 2022 - NSF GRFP for Shady

More good news from NSF. Congrats to Shady for being awarded a fellowship from Graduate Research Fellowship Program! Well done!

March 30, 2022 - NSF postdoctoral fellowship for Rachael

Congrats to Rachael DeTar for receiving a 3-yr postdoctoral fellowship from the NSF! Look forward to some exciting work on secondary structure in plant mitochondrial and plastid RNAs!

March 29, 2022 - Rapid sorting of plant heteroplasmies

Amanda's recent work has shown that variation in mitochondrial and plastid DNA within a cell (heteroplasmy) sorts out extremely fast. The homogenization appears to depend on gene conversation and the function of the recombination/repair enzyme MSH1. Read all about our findings in this preprint!

Update: This work is now published in PNAS along with a perspective piece by Samantha Schaffner and Maulik Patel!

March 14, 2022 - Preprints on mRNA-seq in allopolyploids

We have posted not one but two preprints on cytonuclear gene expression in plants of different ploidy levels. Check out the companion studies with our collaborators at Iowa St. University! Grover et al investigate imbalanced expression of nuclear homoeologs across maternal and paternal subgenomes. Forsythe et al investiage the stoichiometry of nuclear and organellar gene expression. Check them out!

Update: Grover el al. was published in Genetics, and Forsythe et al. was published in PNAS with an accompanying perspective by Jeff Doyle.

March 1, 2022 - New undergraduate researchers

Xiaorui Lou and Janna Novak have joined the lab to work on secondary structure of plant mitochondrial and plastid RNAs with postdoc Rachael DeTar. Welcome!

February 22, 2022 - Assembly of a monster mitochondrial DNA insertion in the Arabidopsis nuclear genome

We have used recently published long-read sequence data from Arabidopsis thaliana to assembly a nuclear insertion of mitochondrial DNA (numt) that is over 600 kb in size. Read all about it in this preprint!

Update: This work in now published in GBE!

January 28, 2022 - Rewiring of tRNA synthetase subcellular targeting

Check out Jess's new preprint on the evolution of subcellular targeting of tRNA-interacting enzymes in Silene in response widespread loss and functional replacement of mitochondrial tRNA genes.

January 20, 2022 - Welcome to new undergrad researchers!

We have had a few new members join the lab in the last couple months. Welcome to Monica Berggren, Tony Gatts, and Lio Lee!

October 1, 2021 - Welcome, Rachael!

Our newest lab member is an old fried of CSU Biology. After doing her undergrad here, including research  in the Pilon-Smit, Rachael recently completed her Ph.D. at Washington State University. She has now joined our lab as a postdoc. Welcome!

September 29, 2021 - Dr. Williams

Congrats to Alissa Williams on her outstanding Ph.D. defense! Great job and best of luck with your postdoctoral position in the Tate Lab at Vanderbilt University. We'll miss you!

September 15, 2021 - Preprint on gene duplication and rate variation

Check our new pre-print on the Clp and ACCase enzyme complexes, which was led by Alissa Williams in collaboration with Evan Forsythe and undergrad researchers Olivia Carter and Hannah Mendoza!

Update: This is now published in MPE!

September 15, 2021 - Welcome, Zoé!

We are thrilled to welcome Zoé Postel as a visiting Ph.D. student this semester from Pascal Touzet's lab at Université de Lille. Zoé is working on the cytonuclear basis of reproductive incompatibility in Silene nutans. Welcome!

August 25, 2021 - New lab members!

We're lucky to have a number of new lab members join us over the last few months, including Shady Kuster (PhD student), Forrest Wold-McGimsey (research technician), Kalia Kodrich (undergrad researcher), Braden Pate (undergrad researcher), Jacob Wilson (undergrad researcher), and Melody Weber (undergrad researcher). Welcome!

July 14, 2021 - New pre-prints

We recently posted pre-prints on 1) the effects of cytonuclear interactions on rates of sequence evolution in allopolyploid subgenomes, 2) mitochondrial tRNA gene loss and import of cytosolic tRNAs in Silene, and 3) using plastome transformation to generate mismatched combinations of plastid and nuclear Clp protease subunits. We're very excited about these projects led by Joel, Jess, and Salah, respectively. Check them out! 

Update: Jess's manuscript is now published in MBE, Salah's is published in Plant Molecular Biology, and Joel's is published in MBE!

July 6, 2021 - Bon voyage, Matt!

We had a great time sending Matt "down the river". Thanks for all the great years in the lab. We'll miss you!

June 18, 2021 - Dr. Warren

Congrats to Jess, who gave a tremendous public and private defense of her PhD dissertation today. Well done!!

June 8, 2021 - New manuscript on cytonuclear stoichiometry in polyploids

Check out our new pre-print on how whole-genome duplication in the nucleus affects genome copy number in mitochondria and chloroplasts. Congrats to Matt, Joel, and all our collaborators at Iowa St.

Update: This is now published in The Plant Journal!

June 3, 2021 - Silene nocitflora Iso-Seq paper

Our new paper led by Alissa describing transcriptomic and genomic resources for Silene noctiflora is now published in G3. Check it out!

May 7, 2021 - Congratulations, graduates!

To our graduating seniors who put in an amazing effort over the course of an unfortunately challenging year, we are so impressed by all you've accomplished. Amber, Johanna,  Mychaela, and Amara, we'll miss you!

May 5, 2021 - New pre-print on mitochondrial mutations in C. elegans

Check out our new study analyzing de novo mitochondrial mutations in nematodes by Gus Waneka, (old friend) Justin Havird, and Josh Svendsen (from the Montgomery Lab).

Update: This is now published in Genetics!

May 4, 2021 - Teaching and mentoring award for Alissa

Congratulations to Alissa, who was awarded for "Graduate Student Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and Mentoring" by the Department of Biology. A small nod to the all the great contributions to our research lab and teaching program!

April 21, 2021 - Welcome Braden and Kalia!

We are thrilled to have two new undergraduate researchers, Braden Pate and Kalia Kodrich, join the lab. Welcome!

January 28, 2021 - Analysis of plastid-nuclear interactions and evolutionary rate covariation published in Plant Cell

Check out our new paper that uses phylogenomic approaches to scan for nuclear genes that coevolve with plastid-encoded proteins across angiosperm diversity. Congrats Evan and Alissa! 

January 12, 2021 - Analysis of spider mite mitochondrial tRNAs published in NAR Genomics and Bioinformatics

Congrats to Jess for her paper analyzing expression of the highly deformed tRNA genes in spider mite mitochondrial genomes, including evidence for sense-antisense expression of mirrored tRNA pairs. Check it out!

December 11, 2020 - Detecting de novo mutations in Silene mitogenomes

Check out our new bioRxiv pre-print reporting a Duplex Sequencing analysis of low-frequency variants in Silene mitochondrial genomes with radically different histories of sequence divergence. 

Update: This study has now been published in Genetics.

December 10, 2020 - New NSF grant

We are excited to announce that our lab has been awarded a grant from NSF MCB to study how the ongoing loss of mitochondrial tRNA genes and functional replacement via import of cytosolic tRNAs in the genus Silene is perturbing interactions with the nuclear-encoded enzymes required for tRNA processing and charging. Extremely grateful for the continued support from NSF for our cytonuclear research! 

December 9, 2020 - Johanna's honors thesis

Congrats to Johanna for  successfully defending her honors thesis on testing different constructs for rescuing clpr2 mutants in Arabidopsis. Great job!

December 4, 2020 - Gus passed his prelims!

Gus successfully completed his qualifying exams. Congrats to our newest Ph.D. candidate!

December 1, 2020 - Sharbrough Lab!

Congrats to Joel who has moved to start his own lab at New Mexico Tech. Very exciting!

September 10, 2020 - Pre-prints, pre-prints, pre-prints

We  recently posted  new bioRxiv pre-prints of our manuscripts on the highly degenerate mitochondrial tRNAs in spider mites, a phylogenomic analysis of evolutionary rate covariation between plastid and nuclear-encoded proteins, and  genomic/transcriptomic resources for the angiosperm Silene noctiflora. Congrats to Jess, Evan, Alissa and colleagues on the great work! Check them out!

August 27, 2020 - Welcome Amara!

Amara Rose has joined the lab as undergraduate researcher to work on evolutionary rate covariation in plant genomes. Welcome!

July 30, 2020 - Pre-print on de novo mutation in insect endosymbionts

Gus's manuscript in collaboration with the Bennett Lab on contrasting mutation rates in two bacterial co-endosymbionts in leafhoppers is now available as a pre-print on bioRxiv. Check it out!

Update: This paper is now published in GBE.

July 25, 2020 - Arabidopsis tRNA-seq paper

Jess's paper combining YAMAT-seq and AlkB methodologies to analyze Arabidopsis tRNA expression and post-transcriptional modifications is now available online at RNA Biology. Check it out!

June 29, 2020 - MSH1 paper

Our work on the effects of MSH1 on mitochondrial and plastid mutation rates was published in PNAS. Check it out!

June 1, 2020 - Welcome Olivia!

Olivia Carter has joined the lab as an undergraduate researcher as part of the B2B Program. Welcome!

May 18, 2020 - Holly's honors thesis

Congratulations to Holly for successfully defending her honors thesis on CRISPR-cas9 modification of the ATP3 gene and graduating. We'll miss you! 

May 11, 2020 - Congratulations all around!

Lots of good news to share from our recent Department celebration. Salah was officially promoted to Associate Professor. Jess received a Graduate-Student Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and Mentoring Award from the Department of Biology. And Connor received High Honors at this year's (virtual) poster session for CSU undergraduate research. Congrats everyone!

March 27, 2020 - Plant mitochondrial tRNA review

Check out our new review on the fascinating biology of plant mitochondrial tRNAs.

February 13, 2020 - MSH1 maintains low mutation rates in plant organelle genomes

Our new pre-print is up on bioRxiv showing large effects of knocking out MSH1 on mitochondrial and plastid mutation rates in Arabidopsis, as well as a fascinating phylogenetic distribution of this gene across diverse eukaryotes and some bacteria and viruses.

January 21, 2020 - Arabidopsis mitochondrial polymorphism and copy number variation

Check out our new paper in G3 on variation Arabidopsis mitochondrial genomes mined from the 1001 Genomes Project and mutation accumulation lines.

January 7, 2020 - The Wu lab!

Congrats to Zhiqiang who is wrapping up his time here to start to go start his own lab at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. We'll miss you!

October 14, 2019 - Connor joins the lab

Connor King has joined the lab this semester as undergraduate researcher. He is studying the phylogenetic history of gene families involved in the maintenance of plant organelle genomes. Welcome!

October 2, 2019 - Plant tRNA Sequencing

Jess's study of expression and modification profiles of plant tRNAs is now available as a pre-print on bioRxiv. Check it out!

August 26, 2019 - Science on Tap

Jess kicked off the new semester by giving a public talk on endosymbiosis. Thanks to Wolverine Farm Letterpress & Publick House for hosting the Science on Tap series!

August 20, 2019 - NIH Fellowship for Alissa!

Alissa was awarded an NIH T32 graduate fellowship from CSU's new qCMB program. Congrats!

July 25, 2019 - Conference season!

The lab has been busy presenting results at conferences this summer. Jess, Evan, and Dan represented the lab at SMBE in Manchester, England, while Zhiqiang presented at Evolution in Providence, RI and Joel attended the International Conference on Polyploidy in Ghent, Belgium -- not to mention Alissa's earlier trip this year to the Chloroplast Biotechnology Gordon Conference in Ventura, CA. 

Weary travelers!

June 3, 2019 - Review of selfish mitonuclear conflict

Our review with (old friend) Justin Havird, Jack Werren, and Damian Dowling on the selfish interactions that can creep into even the highly mutualistic interactions between mitochondria and nucleus has now been published in Current Biology.

April 21, 2019 - CyMIRA

Check out CyMIRA, our new classification system for cytonuclear interactions in plants, on bioRxiv, GitHub, and this searchable online database.

Update: Our CyMIRA paper is now published in GBE.

April 15, 2019 - Undergraduate research showcase

Congrats to Hannah Mendoza, Matt Fernandes Gyorfy, and Nicole Coots, who all presented research posters at this year's Celebrating Undergraduate Research and Creativity (CURC) showcase. Great job!

Update: Matt was awarded Best-in-Show and Nicole received High Honors among >200 research posters. Congrats!!

April 14, 2019 - Computational biology workshop

Thanks to all the participants in this year's computational biology workshop in Todos Santos, Mexico, and to Alissa for running the Bash and Python scripting session.

January 15, 2019 - Computational Biology Workshop 

Registration is now open for annual workshop in Todos Santos, Mexico. April 8-12. Thanks to SMBE and NSF for the support!

December 20, 2018 - Clp paper in Plant J

Check out Alissa's paper on evolution of the Clp protease complex, which has been published online in The Plant Journal.

September 29, 2018 - Mitochondrial recombination and chromosome loss

ZQ's paper on mitochondrial genome evolution in Silene noctiflora is now available online in Heredity. Check it out!

September 24, 2018 - GREEBs 2018

Evan presented up in the mountains at the annual GREEBs conference. Always a great time!

August 23, 2018 - New NSF Plant Genomes funding

Our lab has been awarded a new grant from the NSF PGRP program in collaboration with Jonathan Wendel's lab at Iowa St. University. Our portion of it will be led by Joel Sharbrough and focus on the effects of whole-genome doubling in the nucleus (polyploidy) on interactions between nuclear and cytoplasmic genomes.

Mar 14, 2018 - Trends in Biotechnology Review

Our review on sequencing-methods to detect low-frequency mutations and DNA damage in now available online.

Mar 8, 2018 - Arabidopsis mtDNA paper in Plant Cell

Our paper on updating the Arabidopsis thaliana mitochondrial genome has been published online.

Jan 25, 2018 - Welcome Mariella!

Mariella Rivera has joined the lab as an undergraduate research assistant. Welcome!

Jan 18, 2018 - Arabidopsis mtDNA Pre-Print

See our new bioRxiv pre-print on an improved reference sequence for the Arabidopsis thaliana mitochondrial genome.

Jan 3, 2018 - Welcome (back) ZQ!

Zhiqiang Wu has rejoined to the lab as postdoctoral researcher to investigate plant mitochondrial and plastid mutation rates.

Sept 26, 2017 - Candidate Jess

Congrats to Jess on passing her Ph.D. qualifying exams. Great job!

Sept 23, 2017 - The Havird Lab!

Congrats to Justin who has accepted a faculty position at U Texas Austin. He is looking for grad students and postdocs.

Sept 7, 2017 - New AJB Perspective

Our article on cytonuclear interactions in polyploids with the Wendel and Tate labs is now available in American Journal of Botany.

Sept 6, 2017 - New NIH grant

The lab has been awarded an R01 from NIH NIGMS to investigate variation in mitochondrial and plastid mutation rates in flowering plants.

Sept 1, 2017 - Welcome Amanda and Salah!

Dr. Amanda Broz and Dr. Salah Abdel-Ghany have joined the lab. Welcome!

Aug 30, 2017 - RNA editing paper

Dan's paper contrasting nuclear and mitochondrial RNA editing systems is now available in Biology Letters.

Aug 24, 2017 - Welcome Luke!

Luke Link has joined the lab as an undergraduate researcher to work on mitochondrial biochemistry. Welcome!

Aug 1, 2017 - New Building

The Department of Biology and our lab have officially moved into our new research facility!

July 7, 2017 - Conference Season

Alissa and Dan recently represented the lab at the SMBE meetings and Joel spoke at Evolution 2017.

July 4, 2017 - Hominin Introgression Paper in GBE

Our paper on the effects of Neanderthal and Denisovan introgression on mitonuclear interactions is now available online.

June 27, 2017 - New NSF Grant

The lab has been awarded a grant from NSF MCB to investigate the functional consequences of accelerated protein (co)evolution in plastid-nuclear enzyme complexes. Interested postdocs and grad students should inquire!

June 12, 2017 - Genomic Data Visualization Workshop

Thanks to all the participants in our workshop, which is part of the Front Range Computational & Systems Biology Symposium. 

June 1, 2017 - Welcome Eric and Matt!

Eric Wright (high school intern) and Matt Gyorfy (undergraduate researcher) have joined the lab this summer. Welcome!

May 25, 2017 - Gene transfer paper in MBE

The paper from our collaboration with Jeff Palmer's lab on the role of retroprocessing in intracellular gene transfer is now available online.

May 8, 2017 - Welcome Helena!

Helena Štorchová is joining us for the month as a visiting researcher from the Institute of Botany in the Czech Academy of Sciences. Welcome!

April 28, 2017 - Todos Santos Workshop

Thanks to all the participants in the Computational Biology and Genomics Workshop at the CSU Center in Todos Santos, Mexico!

April 17, 2017 - Greg presents at undergrad research showcase

Greg represented the lab at today's CURC poster session. Nice job!

March 21, 2017 - Welcome Alissa!

Alissa Williams joins the lab as a member of the CMB grad program and an NSF GRFP fellow. Welcome and congrats!

February 7, 2017 - GBE Paper

Check out our recent paper on the molecular evolution and population genetics of mitochondrially targeted genes in Silene.

January 13, 2017 - Computational Biology Workshop

We are offering a workshop on computational biology and genomics at the CSU Todos Santos Center in Baja California from April 24-28.

December 21, 2016 - mtDNA and species boundaries

Check out our review on mitochondrial introgression and mitonuclear incompatibilities, which is available online as a pre-print in Molecular Ecology.

December 19, 2016 - Researchers wanted!

The lab is looking to hire a postdoc or research associate. Contact Dan if you are interested.

October 24, 2016 - Welcome Jana!

Jana Walterová is joining us as a visiting postdoc from the Institute of Botany in the Czech Academy of Sciences. Welcome!

October 11, 2016 - Double congratulations to Kate!

It was a good week for Kate. She successfully defended her masters thesis and her paper was published in Genetics. Way to go!

September 6, 2016 - Welcome Amber!

Amber Torres has joined us as an undergraduate lab assistant. Welcome!

August 26, 2016 - MBE Paper

Check out our forthcoming paper on rates of evolution in nuclear vs. mitochondrial genomes, which is now available as a pre-print from Molecular Biology and Evolution.

July 25, 2016 - Genomics Data Visualization Workshop

Thanks to all the participants in the workshop at the 2016 FRCSB. You can find materials here.

July 22, 2016 - Highlighted in Science

Our symposium at last month's Evolution conference and our work on Silene is the focus of a new piece in Science.

July 1, 2016 - Welcome Joel!

Joel Sharbrough has joined the lab as a postdoc after completing his Ph.D. with Maurine Neiman at the University of Iowa. Welcome!

June 17, 2016 - Evolution 2016

The lab is off to the Evolution meetings in Austin! If you're at the conference, come check out our talks/posters, including our symposium on cytonuclear interactions and coevolution.

May 8, 2016 - Graduate Fellowships

Congrats to Kate and Jess! Both were awarded fellowships for next year from the U.S. Department of Education GAANN program (Kate) and the NSF NRT GAUSSI program (Jess).

April 23, 2016 - Workshop in Todos Santos, Mexico

Thanks to all the participants in the first Computational Biology and Genomics Workshop at the CSU Todos Santos Center in Baja California, Mexico. It was a fantastic experience, and we hope to put on more workshops soon!

Workshop materials

February 8, 2016 - New students!

Welcome to Diana Gerardo, Jerrell Mock, and Greg Noe, who have all joined the lab as undergraduate researchers this semester.

January 12, 2016 - Plant mitochondrial plasmids

Check out our new paper in Genome Biology and Evolution on the evolution of linear plasmids in plant mitochondria.

January 9, 2016 - Mitonuclear interactions and genetic rescue

The paper from our recent collaboration with the Funk and Angeloni labs has been published online in Trends in Ecology and Evolution.

January 4, 2016 - Western Photosynthesis Conference

Dan presented at the Western Photosynthesis Conference near Winter Park, CO. Thanks to Marinus Pilon for organizing a great meeting in such a beautiful venue!

December 5, 2015 - Hologenome essay in PLoS Biology 

Check out Dan's paper with Nancy Moran about the hologenome concept and the basis of co-evolution in host-microbial systems.

December 4, 2015 - Bridges to Baccalaureate

Dan, Justin, and Jess gave the inaugural presentation for the Bridges to Baccalaureate program at Front Range Community College today. Great turnout. Thanks to all the FRCC students who showed up!

November 18, 2015 - Mitochondrial transcription

Our paper on transcription and RNA editing in the massive mitochondrial genome of Silene noctiflora was just published in BMC Genomics.

November 2, 2015 - OXPHOS protein evolution

Check out our new paper on mitonuclear interactions and the evolution of OXPHOS proteins, which is currently available as a pre-print on the Evolution website.

September 16, 2015 - Mitonuclear LD in humans

Check out our new paper analyzing associations between mitochondrial and nuclear alleles in humans in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

September 3, 2015 - New students in the lab

Lucas Dominguez, Paul Trapp, and Lauren Willoughby have all recently joined the lab as undergraduate researchers. Welcome!

August 15, 2015 - Cody graduates

Cograts to Cody Kalous for completing his B.S. in Zoology!

July 17, 2015 - Jess Warren joins the Biology graduate program

Recent CSU undergrad and lab alum Jess Warren has decided to return to the lab as a graduate student. Welcome (back) Jess!

July 11, 2015 - SMBE meetings in Vienna

Dan is attending the annual SMBE meetings held at the beautiful Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Austria.

June 11, 2015 - Mary Andel joins the lab as a summer intern.

Mary will be working in our lab as part of the Fossil Ridge High School STEM Academy program. Welcome!

June 8, 2015 - Paper highlighted in Science

Our recent PNAS paper on the evolution of multichromosomal mitochondrial genomes in plants was selected as an Editor's Choice in Science.

June 8, 2015 - Kate Rockenbach receives Department of Education GAANN Fellowship.

Kate has finished her rotation and decided to stay on in the lab full-time as a Ph.D. student. She was also recently awarded a Department of Education GAANN Fellowship. Congrats!

May 23, 2015 - Silene at the foot of the Parthenon 

Justin and Dan are collecting Silene in Greece. Check out this picture from the Acropolis of Athens. If you look carefully, you can spot some Silene in the vegetation on the right. You might also recognize the structure on the left.

May 17, 2015 - International Conference for Plant Mitochondrial Biology

Dan is speaking tonight at this year's plant mitochondrial conference in Wrocław, Poland.

May 16, 2015 - Graduation day

Congrats to Jess and Jessica (yes, those are different people) who are both graduating today!

May 11, 2015 - Justin Havird Awarded NIH Postdoc Fellowship

Congrats to Justin for receiving a prestigious Kirschstein Fellowship from NIH!

May 5, 2015 - Gain or Loss of Mitochondrial Chromosomes.

Check out our recent paper on variation in the presence of mitochondrial chromosomes among populations of Silene noctiflora, which was just published online in PNAS.

April 22, 2015 - Nick, Jessica, and Cody present at CURC

Cody, Jessica, and Nick were talking science and looking sharp at today's undergraduate research symposium.

March 24, 2015 - Kate Rockenbach joins the lab as a rotation student

Kate Rockenbach, a first-year grad student in the Cell and Molecular Biology program, is doing a rotation in the lab. She will be investigating the molecular evolution of plant organellar proteins. Welcome Kate!

January 20, 2015 - Jess Warren joins the lab.

Jess Warren joins the lab as an undergraduate researcher to study the evolution of mitochondrial plasmids in plants. Welcome Jess!

December 19, 2014 - Plastid-to-Mitochondria DNA Transfers

Dan and Zhiqiang's paper on the history of platid-to-mitochondria DNA transfer in flowering plants was published in Genome Biology and Evolution. Check out the paper.

November 4, 2014 - Plant mitochondrial genomes in the press

Check out Dan's comments in a recent Scientific American article about the wild and wacky Amborella mitochondrial genome. And while your at it, see this recent perspective piece in Science about organelle and endosymbiont genomes that highlights some of our work on massive multichromosomal mitochondrial genomes in Silene.

October 16, 2014 - NAS Sackler Colloquium

Dan is presenting at the National Academy of Sciences' Sackler Colloquium on organelle and endosymbiont evolution in Irvine, CA.

October 13, 2014 - Welcome Justin!

Justin Havird has joined the lab as a postdoc to work on mitonuclear interactions.

September 21, 2014 - GREEBs 2014

Just got back from the 2014 GREEBs conference at CSU's gorgeous Pingree Park campus. Thanks to the Funk lab for organizing!

August 26, 2014 - Welcome Nick!

Recent CSU Biology graduate Nick Whitehill has joined the lab to work on some bioinformatic projects while he pursues a second bachelor's in Computer Science.

July 7, 2014 - NSF Funding

The NSF has funded our proposal to study cytonuclear co-evolution in Silene! We're looking for a postdoc to join the lab and contribute to this project.

June 12, 2014 - SMBE 2014

Lots of fun and great science at the SMBE meetings in Puerto Rico. Can't wait for next year in Austria!

May 6, 2014 - Cytonuclear Interactions in Plants

Dan's minireview on cytonuclear interactions in plants was just published online by New Phytologist.

May 1, 2014 - Welcome Zhiqiang!

Zhiqiang Wu joins the lab as  a postdoc to work on plant organelle genome evolution.

April 17, 2014 - Molecular Evolution Symposium

Dan is presenting at the symposium on molecular evolution at University of Colorado's School of Medicine.

April 10, 2014 - Seminar at Portland St.

Dan's off to give a seminar for the Department of Biology at Portland St. University. Stop by if you're in the area!

March 20, 2014 - BYU Seminar

Dan's on the road to give a seminar to the Microbiology and Molecular Biology Department at BYU (Provo, UT). Come by if you're in the area!

February 2, 2014 - Welcome Cody and Jessica!

CSU undergrads Cody Kalous and Jessica Hurley join the lab to work on qPCR based analysis of DNA damage in plant genomes.

January 23, 2014 - Gene Transfer from Bacteria to Insects

Our paper analyzing the genomic basis of intimate relationships between insects and their endosymbiotic bacteria is now available online at MBE.

January 4, 2014 - Plastid Genome Syndrome

Dan's paper with colleagues at University of Virginia on recurring patterns of evolution in plant chloroplast genomes was accepted by MPE. Check out the paper via Advance Access.

December 14, 2013 - Compensatory Cytonuclear Co-Evolution

Our analysis of plant ribosomal proteins in species with highly divergent rates of organelle genome evolution has been accepted for publication by MBE. Check out the paper via Advance Access.

November 25, 2013 - Graduate Fellowship for Jocelyn

Jocelyn has accepted a fellowship offer to enter the Ph.D. program at Utah State University. Congrats Jocelyn!

November 4, 2013 - One ring to rule them all?

Dan's review on the 'master circle' model of plant mitochondrial genome structure was published in New Phytologist.

October 16, 2013 - Welcome James!

James Stone, a postdoc with Helena Storchova at the Institute of Experimental Botany at the Czech Academy of Science, arrived for a 3-month stay in the lab. Welcome James!

October 3, 2013 - Disentangling associated genomes

Dan's paper with colleagues at Yale and UT Austin on sequencing complete genomes from mixed DNA samples was published in Methods in Enzymology.

October 2, 2013 - Welcome Jocelyn!

Jocelyn Cuthbert, a recent CSU grad, joins the lab today as a research technician. Welcome Jocelyn!

September 23, 2013 - Setting up

Setting up in the new lab and stimulating the economy with good old-fashioned Keynesian spending!

August 16, 2013 - Colorado State

Day 1 at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO! The lab is officially open for business and will be looking for graduate students and postdocs to work in the areas of molecular evolution and genomics. Please contact Dan if you are interested in joining the lab!