Vervet Phenome/Genome Project
In collaboration with other members of the International Vervet Research Consortium, this research attempts to link the variation seen in wild populations to underlying genetic variation using genomic methods. To accomplish this, we have several ongoing projects that capitalize on the broad sampling of individuals from the genus Chlorocebus at the Vervet Research Colony at Wake Forest School of Medicine, from the Caribbean islands of St. Kitts & Nevis, and from across their range in Subsaharan Africa.
My own research interests focus on body quality, energetics, and evolutionary aspects of obesogenic growth and development in both captive and wild populations of vervets, while my collaborations have investigated a wide range of traits including SIV resistance and evolution, parasite distribution, the evolution and development of scrotal coloration, and population genomics and phylogenetics. For a broad sampling of our research, please see the abstracts associated with our symposium at the 2014 meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists.
Recent publications associated with this project include:
Schmitt et al. (2018, International Journal of Obesity 42: 765-774) demonstrates that adult obesity and obesogenic growth in vervet monkeys is controlled by both maternal diet while in utero and by various genomic regions also associated with human metabolic disorders (such as Type 2 Diabetes, hypertension, and lipid metabolism), establishing vervets as a fascinating model for the evolution and development of human obesity.
Turner et al. (American Journal of Physical Anthropology, in press) showed that vervet populations across Africa show evidence of selection for body size and proportion based on climatic variations consistent with Bergmann's and Allen's Rules, while also showing population-specific deviations from these patterns hypothesized to be rooted in sexual selection and differences in human-mediated impacts like access to garbage and crops.
Jasinska et al. (2017, Nature Genetics 49: 1714-1721) develops the first catalogue of eQTL (expression quantitative trait loci) across ages, sexes and different tissue types in vervet monkeys. In it, we note expression variation in genomic regions that control for traits critical to human health, such as anti-viral immunity and changes in hippocampal volume (which is seen in some neuropsychiatric disorders, like clinical depression).
Svardal et al. (2017, Nature Genetics 49: 1705-1713) compares genomic variation across world-wide wild populations of vervet monkeys to better understand how those populations differ and diverged evolutionarily. We found selection for different anti-viral immunity variants across the genome in different populations, many of which are related to regions of the genome we see interacting with HIV infection in humans (no doubt in response to SIVagm).
My own research interests focus on body quality, energetics, and evolutionary aspects of obesogenic growth and development in both captive and wild populations of vervets, while my collaborations have investigated a wide range of traits including SIV resistance and evolution, parasite distribution, the evolution and development of scrotal coloration, and population genomics and phylogenetics. For a broad sampling of our research, please see the abstracts associated with our symposium at the 2014 meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists.
Recent publications associated with this project include:
Schmitt et al. (2018, International Journal of Obesity 42: 765-774) demonstrates that adult obesity and obesogenic growth in vervet monkeys is controlled by both maternal diet while in utero and by various genomic regions also associated with human metabolic disorders (such as Type 2 Diabetes, hypertension, and lipid metabolism), establishing vervets as a fascinating model for the evolution and development of human obesity.
Turner et al. (American Journal of Physical Anthropology, in press) showed that vervet populations across Africa show evidence of selection for body size and proportion based on climatic variations consistent with Bergmann's and Allen's Rules, while also showing population-specific deviations from these patterns hypothesized to be rooted in sexual selection and differences in human-mediated impacts like access to garbage and crops.
Jasinska et al. (2017, Nature Genetics 49: 1714-1721) develops the first catalogue of eQTL (expression quantitative trait loci) across ages, sexes and different tissue types in vervet monkeys. In it, we note expression variation in genomic regions that control for traits critical to human health, such as anti-viral immunity and changes in hippocampal volume (which is seen in some neuropsychiatric disorders, like clinical depression).
Svardal et al. (2017, Nature Genetics 49: 1705-1713) compares genomic variation across world-wide wild populations of vervet monkeys to better understand how those populations differ and diverged evolutionarily. We found selection for different anti-viral immunity variants across the genome in different populations, many of which are related to regions of the genome we see interacting with HIV infection in humans (no doubt in response to SIVagm).
