Daniel Bolnick, Ph.D.
Mentor
Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
My lab studies the evolution of vertebrate immunity, and parasite counter-adaptations, set within an ecological context. We study the interaction between stickleback fish and their tapeworm parasites, through ecological surveys (including environmental DNA surveys of parasite and host communities), population genomics, two-species transcriptomics, and proteomics. We also do experimental assays of host resistance and immune traits and genetic mapping with Quantitative Trait Locus (QTL) methods. Our goal is to identify the genetic loci and immune phenotypes that are involved in rapid evolution of host immunity to infection, and to determine the ecological context that dictates when hosts evolve resistance, or evolve tolerance. This includes surveys of natural populations, but also large replicated whole-lake experimental evolution experiments in nine lakes in Alaska.
