The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $679,192 Project Grant to the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) to study the genomic basis of evolutionary innovations in squamate reptiles (lizards and snakes). The research will compile comprehensive phenotypic data for 370 living and fossil squamate species, build a database of complete genomes representing over 90% of living squamate families, and use comparative genomics and phylogenetics to reveal the molecular changes associated with...
This $1.165 million National Science Foundation project grant will fund research at Marquette University from September 2022 through August 2026 to identify sex chromosomes in understudied lizard and snake species. The research aims to advance understanding of sex chromosome evolution by investigating reptile groups with diverse sex determination systems. Researchers will characterize sex chromosomes through comparative genomics, transcriptomics, and phylogenetics analyses. They will also...
The National Science Foundation (NSF) Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) awarded a $240,000 Project Grant to fund a postdoctoral fellowship investigating the genomic and environmental factors underlying reproductive isolation and adaptive introgression in speckled rattlesnakes. The 3-year award, effective September 1, 2024, will support research and training to understand how natural selection influences speciation, as well as the development of online tutorials and book chapters on...
The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $1,501,418 Project Grant to the University of Texas at Arlington to fund a collaborative research project examining snake venom systems as a model for understanding the structure and evolution of regulatory networks underlying organism-level physiological traits. The project, which runs from August 1, 2023 to July 31, 2027, aims to advance fundamental understanding of how new gene regulatory networks arise and how variation in these networks...
This $476,342 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) will fund research at Ohio Wesleyan University to study the common wall lizard. The research will leverage field observations, laboratory experiments, and genomic sequencing to understand how this invasive species has thrived in novel urban environments across North America after limited introduction. Specifically, the research will quantify thermoregulatory behaviors and thermally...
This National Science Foundation (NSF) Project Grant award under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) provides $240,000 in funding to support a 3-year postdoctoral research fellowship focused on using snake venom as a model system to investigate the evolution of gene regulatory networks (GRNs) and their role in shaping organismal phenotypes. The research aims to advance the understanding of the "rules of life" governing the linkages between genomes, environments, and...
This Project Grant from the National Science Foundation will fund $240,000 over three years to support a postdoctoral research fellowship in biology under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074). The fellowship will fund integrative research investigating the interaction of genomes, environments, and phenotypes in driving the diversification of North American lizards during adaptive radiation. The fellow will generate reference genomes for Anolis lizards, apply cytogenetic techniques to...
This $148,884 project grant from the National Science Foundation's Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) will support research to identify undescribed snake species diversity in New Guinea through fieldwork, genetic and morphological analysis, and taxonomic revisions. The Field Museum of Natural History will conduct expeditions to collect groundsnake and keelback snake specimens in Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, and the Philippines for DNA sequencing and high-resolution CT scanning. Museum...
This National Science Foundation project grant award of $240,000 provides funding from August 1, 2023 through July 31, 2026 to support an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology. The fellowship will fund research investigating the genetic basis of structural coloration in animals under the Biological Sciences federal grant program (CFDA 47.074). The fellow will sequence genomes from over 100 lizard specimens to identify genomic regions controlling structural blue color variation versus...
This two-year, $276,000 National Science Foundation project grant funds research and training through the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) to uncover the genomic and developmental basis of gliding structure evolution in gecko lizards. The fellowship recipient will characterize patagium development in multiple gecko species to determine if convergently evolved gliding membranes result from convergent or divergent cellular and developmental patterns. Using histology, apoptosis assays,...