Investigating the physiology and genetics of cyanide processing in bamboo-eating mammals
Eating is dangerous. Every bite an herbivore takes puts it at risk of poisoning by one of many toxins plants have developed to protect them from marauding herbivores. Cyanide is a deadly metabolic toxin that kills by halting cellular respiration. Some plants, including bamboos and cassava, produce cyanide when damaged. Yet some animals, including bamboo lemurs, giant pandas, and some humans, rely on these toxic foods.
Lauterbur, M.E., Tongasoa, L., Peralta, J., Jacox, A., Concheiro-Guisan, M., & Wright, P.C. (2017, March). Peeing Poison: The Biochemistry of Bamboo Lemur Cyanide Survival. In Integrative and Comparative Biology (Vol. 57, pp. E96-E96). Journals Dept, 2001 Evans Rd, Cary, NC 27513 USA: Oxford Univ Press Inc.
Lauterbur, M.E., Tongasoa, L., Peralta, J., Jacox, A., Concheiro-Guisan, M., & Wright, P.C. (2017, March). Peeing Poison: The Biochemistry of Bamboo Lemur Cyanide Survival. In Integrative and Comparative Biology (Vol. 57, pp. E96-E96). Journals Dept, 2001 Evans Rd, Cary, NC 27513 USA: Oxford Univ Press Inc.
Examining the practical impact of non-equilibrium population dynamics in conservation genetics
It is imperative to understand the population dynamics of species of conservation concern, and population genetic analyses provide a method by which to do so. However traditional population genetics and coalescent theory make certain assumptions to allow generalization and the development of analytical results, including that the population is large and stable. These assumptions are violated in populations of conservation concern, which are generally small and declining in size.
Lauterbur, M.E. (2017, October). Genetic diversity estimates of small populations impacted by model choice. Student Conference on Conservation Science - NY.
Lauterbur, M.E. (2017, October). Genetic diversity estimates of small populations impacted by model choice. Student Conference on Conservation Science - NY.
Phylogenetic study of Primate Basal Metabolic Rates and testing the Energy Conservation Hypothesis
Lemurs and other strepsirrhines have traditionally been thought to have a lower basal metabolic rate to body mass ratio than other primates. This has been used as evidence to support hypotheses about the ecological and evolutionary uniqueness of these species. However this assertion has not previously been tested in a phylogenetic context, statistically accounting for the non-independence of this data - the phylogenetic relationships between species.
Lauterbur, M.E. (2016, August). Testing the Energy Conservation Hypothesis: Rethinking the role of environment constraints in BMR. Podium presentation at the Joint Meeting of the International Primatological Society and the American Society of Primatologists, Chicago, IL
Lauterbur, M.E. (2016, August). Testing the Energy Conservation Hypothesis: Rethinking the role of environment constraints in BMR. Podium presentation at the Joint Meeting of the International Primatological Society and the American Society of Primatologists, Chicago, IL
Methods development:
https://github.com/lauterbur
- Versatile detection of diverse selective sweeps with Flex-sweep. https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.11.15.516494
- Testing for selection associated with gene duplication and loss events
- Power analysis for phylogenetic ANCOVA
- Reference-assisted exon assembly from short-read data