Research Day 2018 Schedule

Genomic Diversity of Peromyscus leucopus within the Chicago Region

Author/ Authors/ Presenter/ Presenters/ Panelists:

Snehal Chavda, Governors State UniversityFollow

Location

D34115

Start Date

4-6-2018 2:00 PM

End Date

4-6-2016 2:30 PM

Abstract

Program description, as provided by the author:

The white-footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus) often shows a positive relationship between population density and fragmentation. Severe habitat fragmentation creates geographical barriers, which concurrently serve as dispersal barriers for those populations residing within the heterogeneous landscape. Furthermore, variation in discharge of pollutants in urban ecosystems, compared to that of agriculture and rural ecosystems, exerts unique selective pressures on local populations. To study the effects of evolutionary section due habitat fragmentation and environmental stressors on this ubiquitous species, P. leucopus were live trapped along an urban-rural gradient in the Chicago region. Twenty-eight locations were selected from four landscape types within the greater Chicago area: (1) urban (2) suburban, (3) agriculture, and (4) macrosite. This selection procedure broadly identified an area proceeding south of downtown Chicago, then west, as maximizing the diversity of land coverages along the gradient. These sites were all standardized on oak woodlands. Approximately 600 unique individuals were sampled during 2014 to 2017 and a 2-mm tissue sample collected to analyze genetic variation along the 70-km gradient. DNA was isolated using QAmp Blood and Tissue Kit following manufacturer’s protocol. A melting curve was established using a temperature gradient Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) assay. Based on the results from the melting curve assay, 12 individual PCR assays were established. Currently, preliminary work on genomic analysis of each individual sample is under way at the Pritzker Laboratory at the Field Museum of Natural History. This will involve estimates of genetic isolation among different field sites.

Identify Grant

2016-17 University Research Grant

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Apr 6th, 2:00 PM Apr 6th, 2:30 PM

Genomic Diversity of Peromyscus leucopus within the Chicago Region

D34115

Program description, as provided by the author:

The white-footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus) often shows a positive relationship between population density and fragmentation. Severe habitat fragmentation creates geographical barriers, which concurrently serve as dispersal barriers for those populations residing within the heterogeneous landscape. Furthermore, variation in discharge of pollutants in urban ecosystems, compared to that of agriculture and rural ecosystems, exerts unique selective pressures on local populations. To study the effects of evolutionary section due habitat fragmentation and environmental stressors on this ubiquitous species, P. leucopus were live trapped along an urban-rural gradient in the Chicago region. Twenty-eight locations were selected from four landscape types within the greater Chicago area: (1) urban (2) suburban, (3) agriculture, and (4) macrosite. This selection procedure broadly identified an area proceeding south of downtown Chicago, then west, as maximizing the diversity of land coverages along the gradient. These sites were all standardized on oak woodlands. Approximately 600 unique individuals were sampled during 2014 to 2017 and a 2-mm tissue sample collected to analyze genetic variation along the 70-km gradient. DNA was isolated using QAmp Blood and Tissue Kit following manufacturer’s protocol. A melting curve was established using a temperature gradient Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) assay. Based on the results from the melting curve assay, 12 individual PCR assays were established. Currently, preliminary work on genomic analysis of each individual sample is under way at the Pritzker Laboratory at the Field Museum of Natural History. This will involve estimates of genetic isolation among different field sites.