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titleboxKAREN L. CARLETON titlebox

professor pictureAssistant Professor

email:kcarleto@umd.edu
phone:
301.405.6929 (office)
301.405.8121 (lab)
fax:301.314.9358
office:2130 Bioscience Research Building
graduate programs: Biology, BEES, NACS
bullet visit lab page   bullet most recent publications


RESEARCH INTERESTS

Evolution of visual systems and visual communication: genetics of visual system tuning; physical modeling of color signals and visual discrimination. African cichlid fishes serve as a model to explore how natural and sexual selection drive communication. Evolution of rod and cone phototransduction: tuning photoreceptor responsivity through evolution of protein structure and gene expression. A comparative genomic approach utilizing a diversity of vertebrates including mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and agnathans.

Recent Publications


Spady TC, Parry JWL, Robinson PR, Hunt DM, Bowmaker JK and Carleton KL. Evolution of the cichlid visual palette through ontogenetic subfunctionalization of the opsin gene arrays. Mol Biol Evol 23: 1538-1547.

Carleton KL, Spady TC and Kocher TD. Visual communication in East African cichlid fishes : Diversity in a phylogenetic context. In Communication in Fishes. F. Ladich, S.P. Collin, P. Moller and B.G. Kapoor eds. Science Publisher Inc, Enfield, New Hampshire, pp. 481-511.

Carleton KL, Parry JWL, Bowmaker JK, Hunt DM and Seehausen O. Color vision and speciation in Lake Victoria cichlids of the genus Pundamilia. Molecular Ecology 14: 4341-53.

Parry JWL, Carleton KL, Spady TC, Carboo A, Hunt DM and Bowmaker JK. Mix and match colour vision: tuning spectral sensitivity by differential opsin gene expression in Lake Malawi cichlids. Curr Biol 15: 1734-9.

Carleton KL, Spady TC, and Cote RH. Rod and cone opsin families differ in spectral tuning domains but not signal transducing domains as judged by saturated evolutionary trace analysis. J Mol Evol 61: 75-89.

Katagiri T, Kidd C, Tomasina E, Davis JT, Wishon C, Stern JE, Carleton KL, Howe AE and Kocher TD. A BAC-based physical map of the Nile tilapia genome. BMC Genomics 6:89.

Fuller RC, Carleton KL, Fadool JM, Spady TC and Travis J. Genetic and environmental variation in the visual properties of bluefin killifish, Lucania goodei. J Evol Biol 18: 516-523.

Lee BY, Lee WJ, Streelman JT, Carleton KL, Howe AI, Hulata G, Slettan A, Stern JE, Terai Y and Kocher TD. A second generation genetic linkage map of tilapia (Oreochromis spp.) Genetics 170: 237-244.

Scott MP, Panaitof SC, and Carleton KL. Quantification of vitellogenin-mRNA during maturation and breeding of a burying beetle. J Insect Phys 51: 323-31.

Spady TC, Seehausen O, Loew ER, Jordan RC, Kocher TD and Carleton KL. Adaptive molecular evolution in the opsin genes of rapidly speciating cichlid species. Mol Biol Evol 22: 1412-22 .