The Cnidarian Tree of Life Project

Graduate Student, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Kansas

Phylogenetic placement of enigmatic parasites

At first, I worked as a technician in Dr Cartwright's laboratory at the University of Kansas. My primary responsibilities for the Cnidarian Tree of Life Project were to isolate DNA from medusozoan specimens and amplify various markers for DNA sequencing. I sequenced 16s, CO1, 28s, and 18s from several hundred medusozoan samples. I am also involved in helping to develop strategies to organize the large amounts of data that we are accumulating for the project. I have been told that in the lab I'm like a piece of furniture. I'd like to think that's a compliment.

More recently, I am working on a Masters degree with Dr. Cartwright. I am investigating the phylogenetic placement of two enigmatic putative cnidarian parasites, Polypodium and myxozoans. I am exploring effects of long branches, taxon sampling, choice of loci, and model specification, on the phylogenetic positioning of these taxa. I am also studying the evolution and biogeography of Polypodium. Polypodium is described as a single species but if found on three continents in many different species of sturgeon and paddlefish. I am using DNA markers to determine is there is host specificity and/or biogeographic signal in the Polypodium infecting different fish species.