3: Larissa Williams
Larissa M. Williams
Ph.D. candidate in Environmental Toxicology, North Carolina State University
I am interested in the basis of adaptation at the genomic level. I study several independent, resistant, natural populations of the estuarine minnow, Fundulus heteroclitus, which have become adapted to chronic anthropogenic pollution. I compare genomic level variation between these chronically exposed populations to clean, reference populations. My first project revolved around identifying AFLP (Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphisms) loci that exhibited non-neutral patterns of variation. To extend this project, we used several high-throughput technologies to sequence and genotype SNPs across many AFLPs and ESTs. We used this data to determine population structure as well as to identify SNPs under selection. We are now characterizing several SNPs that exhibit strong signatures of selection with the hope of identifying their role in the resistance phenotype.
Publications:
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My research focus is on the population genomics of adaptation.