Research

Understanding how genetic variants that generate phenotypic variation make their way into a population is central to the study of phenotypic evolution and adaptation, since these variants are the substrate upon which selection acts to generate phenotypic diversity. Phyllobates poison frogs are a particularly well-suited system to tackle this question: Three independent allopatric lineages within the genus appear to have independently evolved solid-yellow coloration from dark, striped ancestors. Using tools from population genetics, phylogenetics, developmental biology, genetic association, and gene expression profiling, this project aims to uncover the genes underlying color-pattern variation in order to investigate their history and its relationship to the genus's biogeographic history. Furthermore, since all of the solid-yellow lineages acquire their color pattern through nearly identical changes in development we seek to understand the molecular genetic and developmental mechanisms through which these genes act to generate a frog's color pattern.

Poison frogs of the family Dendrobatidae have radiated into at least 300 species in the last ~30 million years. Long standing efforts to describe the diversity of these frogs have revealed astonishing cases of both highly polymorphic and cryptic species, making them an interesting system to understand the evolution of lineage and phenotypic diversity. Documenting, describing, and classifying such diversity is the first step to understanding its evolutionary origin. My work on this front focuses on the genera Phyllobates and Andinobates, both distributed in the highly diverse tropical forests of northwestern South America and Southern Central America. In addition to Dendrobatid frogs, I have participated in systematic and taxonomic work on other taxa, such as salamanders of the genus Bolitoglossa and fungi of the genus Histoplasma.

Amphibians have been important model species in most branches of the biological sciences for centuries. However, functional genomic tools are largely lacking in all but a few amphibian species. As part of a team led by Dr. Lauren O'Connell, I am working to develop a genetic manipulation toolbox for non-model amphibians, focusing on Dendrobatid and Mantellid poison frogs. These tools will allow researchers to functionally test hypothesis regarding the genetic basis of phenotypic traits, and will open the door to a wide range of studies on developmental, cell, and molecular biology.

A wide array of species use neurotoxins for predator defense. Usually, these species evolve resistance to their own toxins to avoid self-intoxication when sequestering, storing, and secreting them. Predators, in turn, can evolve toxin resistance to regain access to chemically defended prey. Neurotoxin resistance many times involves changes at a handful of proteins whose molecular and biochemical function is often well understood, providing a powerful system to study the evolution of protein function in natural populations. I study the evolution neurotoxin resistance in Phyllobates poison frogs, which secrete of batrachotoxin (BTX), one of the strongest neurotoxins known to science, and mainly focus on identifying the genetic basis of BTX resistance as well as the evolutionary forces and processes that shape the evolution of this trait.

Apart from my main research program, I am always interested to collaborate in projects that I find interesting, and to which I can contribute. Recent collaborations include work on the relationship between seasonal migration and speciation in Tyrant flycatchers (led by Valentina Gómez-Bahamón), species delimitation of Histoplasma pathogenic fungi (led by Daniel Matute), and phylogeography of spectacled caimans across South and central America (led by Mónica Angulo-Bedoya).