Thomas Nicholas

Joined Program: 2005
Previous Degree: B.A. Biology, University of Utah
Akey Lab
tjn3 [ a t ] u.washington.edu

Research:
Understanding the genetic architecture of phenotypic variation is a fundamental problem in genetics and evolutionary biology. Although considerable attention has been devoted to identifying and understanding how changes in DNA sequence (i.e., single nucleotide polymorphisms) contribute to phenotypic variation, changes in DNA content (i.e., structural variation) are emerging as another important source of phenotypic variation. For example, duplications have been extensively studied in humans and have been shown to contribute to phenotypic variation. To date, however, there have been no global, systematic and rigorous studies of duplications in the modern dog, Canis familiaris. There are over 400 breeds of dogs that exhibit a wide range of morphological, behavioral and physiological phenotypes, yet all of these breeds belong to one species and share a high level of genetic similarity. Given the important role of duplications in phenotypic variation in humans and other mammals it is reasonable to hypothesize that duplication variation contributes to genetic and phenotypic variation in the modern dog. I am seeking to identify duplication patterns that vary across the breeds. It will be of particular interest to identify duplications that are found exclusively in one (or several) breeds, and absent from others. Such duplications will provide strong candidates to explore in future phenotypic studies.