Graduation Semester and Year
2023
Language
English
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy in Quantitative Biology
Department
Biology
First Advisor
Todd Castoe
Abstract
The field of population genomics has been mainly applied to questions centered around understanding molecular variation, impacts of evolutionary processes, and the history of populations. Here I leverage population genomic techniques across two different systems to understand patterns of disease transmission across heavily monitored and controlled parasite populations and consequences of hybridization between divergent rattlesnake lineages. I employed multiple genome sequencing techniques with new methods to infer close-order relatedness from highly inbred human blood fluke populations in order to understand transmission pathways across a region experiencing a resurgence in disease. I then use a comparative population genomic approach by sampling other countries that have less control efforts to look for patterns of control-driven selection within our study region. Finally, I use reduced representation sequencing across a rattlesnake hybrid zone to understand the underlying evolutionary impact hybrid fitness. Collectively, this work provides an example of how population genomic can be utilized to answer a diverse range of questions ranging from selection patterns on parasites undergoing intense control efforts to the consequences of hybridization across millions of years.
Keywords
Population genomics
Disciplines
Biology | Life Sciences
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Nikolakis, Zachary Lamar, "LEVERAGING POPULATION GENOMICS ACROSS TWO TAXONOMICALLY DIVERSE NON-MODEL SYSTEMS TO UNDERSTAND PATTERNS OF DISEASE TRANSMISSION AND CONSEQUENCES OF HYBRIDIZATION" (2023). Biology Dissertations. 148.
https://mavmatrix.uta.edu/biology_dissertations/148
Comments
Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington