Erik B. Dopman
Assistant Professor
Evolution and Genetics of Natural Populations

Education

2007-2009 NIH-NRSA Postdoctoral Fellow; Harvard University
2005-2007 Postdoctoral Fellow; Harvard University
1999-2005 Ph.D., Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Cornell University
1994-1998 B.S., Biology: Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation; University of Texas at Austin

Graduate Research Areas: Ecology, Behavior and Evolution and Genetics and Molecular Biology

Research Interests

One of Science's greatest challenges is to understand the origins of biological diversity in nature. As pointed out by the eminent biologist Ernst Mayr, biodiversity has both proximate (e.g., genetic) and ultimate (evolutionary) causes. The Dopman lab applies a unified conceptual framework to investigate both forms of causation through a combination of experimental and comparative studies, and by drawing on various approaches, including population genetics, genomics, bioinformatics, and molecular genetics. Although we focus on long-standing problems in evolutionary biology, we use modern tools and techniques to advance our research goals (e.g., DNA microarrays, next-generation sequencing).

Current efforts in the lab are directed towards understanding two major causes of biodiversity: speciation and mutation. Our work on speciation addresses the evolution of phenotypic differences between diverging populations, with an emphasis on so-called "speciation genes" that contribute to reproductive barriers. We are also interested in the consequences of these speciation genes for population genetic structure and genome-wide patterns of gene flow.

Our work on mutation investigates large-scale changes in the number of chromosome segments or gene copies, which are also known as copy-number polymorphisms (CNPs). Recent work has found that CNPs are both pervasive among healthy individuals and extensive across species genomes. The vast abundance of this form of genetic variation challenges the notion that the single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) is the primary source of genetic and phenotypic variation.

The Dopman lab is accepting students and postdocs interested in speciation, CNPs, or related issues in evolutionary biology. If you are interested, please get in touch.

Courses

Bio 143: Evolutionary Biology
Bio 244: Graduate Seminar in Evolutionary Ecology

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