Genetic Variation and Adaptation in Coastal Invertebrates

Genetic variation is the 'raw material' in populations from which organisms adapt to local environments. The extent, distribution in populations, and location in the genome of this variation is important for how populations will respond to ongoing changes. Organisms adapt to particular environmental conditions due, in part, to selection for particular changes in their DNA that translate to a change in their phenotype. With the development of cost-effective high-throughout 'omic approaches, researchers can begin determine genetic variation throughout a genome and dissect these changes and their effect of particular characters (genotype-phenotype map). Our research are interested in understanding the genetic adaptation in two areas: (1) mechanisms of adaptation by Nematostella populations spanning a pronounced thermocline along the Atlantic coast of North America, where we have an empirical understanding of the population genetic relationships, and (2) mechanisms of adaptation to particular environments with the sea anemone family Edwardsiidae (which includes Nematostella) by leveraging the Nematostella genome with sequence data from related species.