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Thomas Parchman, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
Thomas Parchman

Contact Information

Degrees

  • Post Doctoral, University of Wyoming, 2008-2013
  • Ph.D., Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, New Mexico State University, 2007
  • M.S., Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, New Mexico State University, 2002
  • B.S., Environmental Biology, Ohio University, 1999

Biography

Research in my lab investigates the evolutionary consequences of species interactions and the genetic signatures of adaptive divergence, hybridization, and speciation. Projects often utilize field-based studies of natural selection, species interactions, and coevolution; genomic-scale investigations of genetic variation important to understanding population history and adaptive evolution; and 3) population genomic approaches to inferring the evolutionary processes affecting genetic variation. Much of my research has used evolutionary ecological approaches to study coevolution between plants and seed predators, and to understand the role of coevolution in adaptive diversification. Current work in the lab involves on the generation of population genomic data sets to analyze fine scale patterns of genetic variation in natural populations and to understand the genetic architectures of adaptation, speciation, and hybridization. Examples of ongoing projects include 1. landscape genomic and association genetics of adaptive trait architecture in pines, 2. genome-scale analyses of population structure and differentiation in the recent radiation of crossbills, and 3. population genomic analyses of hybridization between introduced and native fishes.

Courses Taught

  • BIOL 300: Principles of Genetics
  • BIOL 724: Intro to computation tools for Genomic Biology

Selected Publications

  • Gompert, Z., A. A. Comeault, T. E. Farkas, J. L. Feder, T. L. Parchman, C. A. Buerkle, and P. Nosil. 2014. Experimental evidence for ecological selection on genome evolution in the wild. Ecology Letters 17: 369-379.
  • Parchman, T. L., Z. Gompert, G. Zhang, M. J. Braun, R. Brumfield, D. B. McDonald, J. A. C. Uy, E. D. Jarvis, B. A. Schlinger, and C. A. Buerkle. 2013. The genomic consequences of adaptive divergence and reproductive isolation between species of manakins. Molecular Ecology 22:3304-3317.
  • Nosil, P., Z. Gompert, T. A. Farkas, A. Comeault, J. L. Feder, C. A. Buerkle, and T. L. Parchman. 2012. Genomic consequences of multiple speciation processes in a stick insect. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 279:5058-5065. Featured in July 2012 Editor's Choice article in Science.
  • Parchman, T. L., Z. Gompert, C. W. Benkman, F. D. Schilkey, J. Mudge, and C. A. Buerkle. 2012. Genome-wide association mapping of an adaptive trait in lodgepole pine. Molecular Ecology 21:2991-3005. *Faculty of 1000 paper.
  • Edwards, C. E., T. L. Parchman, and C. W. Weekly. 2012. Assembly, gene annotation and marker development using 454 floral transcriptome sequences in Ziziphus celata (Rhamnaceae), a highly endangered, Florida endemic plant. DNA Research 19:1-9.
  • Parchman, T. L., C. W. Benkman, B. Jenkins, and C. A. Buerkle. 2011. Low levels of population genetic structure in Pinus contorta (Pinaceae) across a geographic mosaic of co-evolution. American Journal of Botany 98:669-679.
  • Parchman, T. L., K. S. Geist, J. A. Grahnen, C. W. Benkman and C. A. Buerkle. 2010. Transcriptome sequencing in an ecologically important tree species: assembly, annotation, and marker discovery. BMC Genomics 11:180.
  • Benkman, C. W., T. L. Parchman, and E. T. Mezquida. 2010. Coevolution and the adaptive radiation of crossbills. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1206:1-16.
  • McDonald, D.B., T. L. Parchman, M.R. Bower, W.A. Hubert, and F.J. Rahel. 2008. An introduced and a native vertebrate hybridize to form a genetic bridge to a second native species. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 105:10842 - 10847.
  • Parchman, T. L., and C. W. Benkman. 2008. The geographic selection mosaic for crossbills and ponderosa pine: the influence of Sciurus aberti and S. griseus. Evolution 62:338-360. Featured in April 2008 Editor's Choice article in Science.
  • Parchman, T. L., C. W. Benkman, and S. C. Britch. 2006. Patterns of genetic variation in the adaptive radiation of North American crossbills (Aves: Loxia). Molecular Ecology 15:1873-1887.
  • Parchman, T. L., C. W. Benkman, and E. T. Mezquida. 2007. Coevolution between the Hispaniolan crossbill and pine: does more time allow for greater phenotypic escalation at lower latitudes? Evolution 61:2142-2153.
  • Parchman, T. L., and C. W. Benkman. 2002. Diversifying coevolution between crossbills and black spruce on Newfoundland. Evolution 56:1663-1672. Featured in February 2003 issue of Natural History magazine.