David Lowry

About Me


I am a new postdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas at Austin working on the genetics of adaptation and drought tolerance with the Texas Switchgrass Collaborative (Panicum). The aims of this project are to understand the evolutionary genetic and genomic mechanisms responsible for abiotic stress tolerance in this group of grasses and to leverage this knowledge to eventually create higher yielding bioenergy crops that will require minimal water inputs. This is an important goal, as there is often a trade-off between alternative energy sources, such as biofuels, with ever diminishing water resources.

The focus of my PhD dissertation research at Duke University was directed toward understanding the genetics of adaptation and speciation across the natural landscape. To this end, I chose to study how divergent adaptation of the yellow monkey flower (Mimulus guttatus), to the coast versus inland habitat, contributes to reproductive isolation. I used a combination of QTL mapping and candidate gene strategies to determine the genetic mechanisms that underlie the divergence of morphological and life-history traits between coast and inland Mimulus guttatus. Further, I carried out reciprocal transplant experiments and population genetic analysis to demonstrate that coast and inland Mimulus are locally adapted and reproductively isolated. I also conducted a more recent reciprocal transplant experiment with near isogenic lines to test hypotheses of local adaptation and introgression between ecogeographic races. In addition, I conducted genetic analysis of flowering time under different light conditions, anthocyanin production in vegetative tissues, and ion accumulation. Finally, I was involved with multiple aspects of the Mimulus guttatus genome project.

Publications


Lowry D. B., C.S. Sheng, J.H. Willis. Five anthocyanin polymorphisms are associated with a R2R3-MYB cluster in Mimulus guttatus. Submitted

Lowry, D. B. Recent echos of old debates on stages in the formation of new species. In review

[http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1000500 Lowry, D.B., J. H. Willis. (2010) A widespread chromosomal inversion polymorphism contributes to a major life-history transition, local adaptation, and reproductive isolation. PLoS Biology 8: e1000500]

[http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/123501089/abstract Hall M. C., D. B. Lowry, J. H. Willis. (2010). Hall M. C., D. B. Lowry, J. H. Willis. (2010) Is local adaptation in Mimulus guttatus caused by trade-offs at individual loci? Molecular Ecology. 19: 2739-2753]

[http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2010/01/22/rsbl.2009.0969.full Lowry, D. B. (2010) Landscape evolutionary genomics. Biology Letters. 6: 502-504]

[http://www.springerlink.com/content/vm4456721023284g/ Wu, C. A., D. B. Lowry, L. I. Nutter, J. H. Willis. (2010) Natural variation for drought response in the Mimulus guttatus species complex. Oecologia 162: 23-33]

[http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122462935/abstract Lowry, D. B., M. C. Hall, D. E. Salt, J. H. Willis. (2009). Genetic and physiological basis of adaptive salt tolerance divergence between coastal and inland Mimulus guttatus. New Phytologist  183: 776-788]

[http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/363/1506/3009.long Lowry, D. B., J. L. Modliszewski, K. M. Wright, C. A. Wu, J. H. Willis. (2008). The strength and genetic basis of reproductive isolating barriers in flowering plants. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 363: 3009-3021]

[http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/120775240/abstract Lowry, D. B., R. C. Rockwood, J. H. Willis. (2008). Ecological reproductive isolation of coast and inland races of Mimulus guttatus. Evolution 62: 2196-2214]

[http://www.nature.com/hdy/journal/v100/n2/abs/6801018a.html Wu, C. A., D. B. Lowry, A. M. Cooley, K. M. Wright, Y. W. Lee, and J. H. Willis. (2008). Mimulus is an emerging model system for the integration of ecological and genomic studies. Heredity 100: 220-230.]

Important Things

 * My Website
 * Contact Info: You can contact me at davidbryantlowry@gmail.com.


 * Make sure to check out the Mimulus Community and the Texas Switchgrass Collaborative.

Field Sites





 * Boonville Inland Site
 * Manchester Coastal Site
 * Copperopolis
 * Big Creek Reserve
 * Bodega Marine Lab
 * Angelo Reserve
 * Botanical Beach
 * Gwaii Haanas
 * Bamfield Marine Science Center
 * Pacific Rim National Park

Population Genetic Software



 * TESS
 * FSTAT
 * Tassel
 * Arlequin
 * Structure
 * GenGIS
 * Mark Beaumont
 * Geographic distance matrix generator
 * Genepop (web)
 * Dyerlab (Population Graphs)
 * Isolation by Distance
 * Genetic Data Analysis
 * Software for Populaiton Genetic Analysis
 * Ian Wilson (Batwing)
 * Jody Hey (SITES)
 * Structurama
 * DNASP
 * SNAP

Abiotic Stress Websites



 * Drought Tolerance Arabidopsis
 * How to measure soil salinity

Bioinformatic/Statistical Software and Resources

 * Phytozome
 * Bonferroni Correction Calculator
 * Apollo
 * sim4
 * BLAT
 * NCBI Trace Archives
 * ClustalW
 * Primer 3
 * Q-Value calculator
 * Install MySQL on a mac

Analysis of fitness data

 * ASTER

Other useful sites

 * Blank Outline Maps that can be used to make figures.