BIO

A freshman biological Science major, Nicole is broadly interested in evolution, ecology, and herpetology. She has done research in the Department of Herpetology at the American Museum of Natural History, and is now researching in the Lemmon Lab at FSU. She hopes to pursue a career as a professor or museum curator.

Phylogeography of Pseudacris regilla

Abstract

Current phylogeographic methods harness multilocus data to investigate the evolutionary history of closely related species and lineages, combining phylogenetics, population genetics, and biogeography to uncover evolutionary history. The phylogeographic history of the Pseudacris regilla complex will be revisited with more robust data and newer methods, which requires the extraction of genomic DNA from tissue samples described herein. DNA from extracted samples is quantified via Qubit, and gel electrophoresis is used to ensure that DNA in samples is of the appropriate length. High quality genomic DNA samples are necessary for further analyses which are expected to yield insight into species boundaries, historical demography, population structure, and gene flow within the complex. Resolution of Pseudacris regilla phylogeography can also contribute to a broader comparative framework for understanding how different groups of terrestrial vertebrates along the West coast of North America have been shaped by past climatic and geological events.

Keywords: Frogs, Phylogeography, Evolution, Ecology