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I have pursued a funded research program that is focused on the impact of spatial structure and migration on host-parasite interactions. While interactions between species such as hosts and their parasites have long been implicated as a means of generating patterns of diversification, the specific evolutionary process by which microevolutionary forces generate macroevolutionary patterns is not well understood for coevolutionary systems. The broader impacts of understanding of these selective forces include a better understanding of the pathogen virulence evolution and conditions necessary for disease emergence.
My dissertation research linked studies examining macroevolutionary patterns and microevolutionary processes of coevolution with the goal of understanding how migration and local adaptation produce host use specialization and ultimately lead to parasite diversification. My research incorporated mathematical modeling as well as fieldwork, molecular analysis, and experimental laboratory research to study host specialization in parasites. During my dissertation, I developed mathematical models that provide new theoretical understanding of how dispersal evolves under specific host-parasite interactions. As part of that work, I wrote simulations in MATLAB and performed analytical analyses with the aid of Mathematica.
Sample of recent publications:
- Dybdahl MF and Drown DM. 2011. Absence of genotypic diversity in a successful parthenogenetic invader. Biological Invasions 13: 1663-1672.
- Drown DM, Levri, EP and Dybdahl MF. 2011. Invasive genotypes are opportunistic specialists not general purpose genotypes. Evolutionary Applications 4: 132-143.
- Gomulkiewicz R, Drown DM, Dybdahl MF, Godsoe W, Nuismer SL, Pepin KM, Ridenhour BJ, Smith CI, and Yoder JB. 2007. Do’s and Don’ts of testing the geographic mosaic theory of coevolution. Heredity 98: 249–258.