september, 2017
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Event Details
Abstract
Invasive pathogens can have major impacts on populations of native fauna and flora, even driving some to extinction. Pathogens are being moved around the World at far greater rates than ever before, putting more native species at risk from these novel threats. Efforts to identify, elucidate and mitigate such events are critical, including understanding the role of genetic variation in combating infection. Next generation sequencing methods can be useful to identify multiple pathogens and strains with greater ease. “Omics” methods such as GWAS and other association analyses, RNAseq to assess gene expression, and increased resolution of candidate genes, can help to determine genetic factors or changes that underlie host susceptibility or pathogen virulence. In this talk I illustrate application of genomic methods to ongoing studies by my lab on tick borne pathogens, Hawaiian honeycreepers parasitized by introduced avian malaria, and amphibians infected by the invasive chytrid fungus Bd.
Rob Fleischer is Senior Scientist and Head of the Center for Conservation and Evolutionary Genetics at Smithsonian’s Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI). His primary fields of interest are evolutionary and conservation biology. He conducts individual and collaborative research in population and evolutionary genetics, systematics, and molecular and behavioral ecology, mostly on free-ranging bird and mammal species, and their pathogens. Most of his more recent projects use genomic, transcriptomic and microbiome methods.
If you would like to speak with Rob, please contact Christian Rutz.