Honors and Awards
- National Institutes of Health, Kirschstein National Research Service Award for Individual Postdoctoral Fellows, 2007-2010
- Harvard University Distinction in Teaching Award, 2007
- Most Innovative Research (poster session), Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Disease Meeting, Pennsylvania State University, 2006
- Island Press Award, Student Competition Oral Presentations, Conservation Genetics session, Society for Conservation Biology, Columbia University, 2004
- NSF Doctoral Dissertation Enhancement Grant, 2003
- TWA Environmental Scholarship, 2002 and 2004
- Stone Award in Entomology, Department of Entomology, UM-Columbia, 2000
- Team Captain of the National Championship Linnean Games Team, Annual Meeting of the Entomological Society of America, 2000
Research Interests
Our primary interest is in understanding how species interactions have shaped the structure of ecological communities, the phenotypes of the interacting species, and the structure of their genomes. Although organismal biology is our starting point, we are also interested in co-evolution between loci within organisms. Interactions between genes within a single genome, are not unlike the complex communities, the 'tangled banks' filled with known and unknown species, that we observe in nature. Co-evolutionary processes are hypothesized to play a major role in shaping all of these interactions.
Our research is divided into two main themes, which are further divided into specific projects:
I. Evolution of herbivory and host specialization.
What are the genetic underpinnings and genomic consequences of ecological transitions to parasitic life histories?
The phenotypes of parasites are a case-study in convergent evolution. A major, unsolved problem is whether molecular convergence underpins phenotypic convergence in parasites. Independent transitions to plant parasitism within the family Drosophilidae provide an excellent opportunity in which to test the hypothesis that convergent phenotypic evolution is underpinned by convergent molecular genetic patterns. We are also leading an effort to develop genomically and genetically tractable model herbivores of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana and relatives: Leafmining flies nested in the paraphyletic Drosophila lineage (called Scaptomyza). Because some members of the lineage can be reared on media or on Arabidopsis plants, the genetic tools for Drosophila and Arabidopsis can be leveraged to study both sides of the plant-herbivore equation.
How does the process of host specialization unfold?
Evolution of detoxification systems. Host specialists are hypothesized to have efficient and derived detoxification mechanisms—but newly derived specialist species are likely to still be in the process of host specialization. What adaptations have they evolved to facilitate the leap to host specialization? We rely on recently evolved host specialists in the Drosophilidae, primarily in the Scaptomyza to answer this question and focus on detoxification enzymes that have been subjected to strong natural selection in their recent evolutionary histories—these studies are combined with biochemical, comparative approaches that aim to link organismal phenotype with single nucleotide polymorphisms and gene duplications that underpin host specialization.
Evolution of chemosensory systems. Most parasites specialize on a limited set of hosts. What is the neurological basis for this? Are there general principles that can be learned by studying convergent evolution of the chemosensory system? How does the peripheral and central nervous system change as species become specialized? The Drosophila and Scaptomyza lineages are well suited to such studies because they contain generalist, oligaphagous and monophagous species. Moreover, some Drosophila and generalists and others specialists, and many have completely sequenced genomes, enabling a complete understanding of the genomic landscape underpinning these adaptations.
II. Ecology and evolution of complex species interactions.
How do ecological interactions between species that attack the same host individual (co-infections) play out in nature?
Chewing herbivores and biotrophic bacterial pathogens differentially modulate the plant defense system in ways that make it difficult for the plant to cope with attack by different natural enemies. What are the fitness consequences on each actor of simultaneous or serial attack by different natural enemies? We are focusing on these three-way interactions between plants, herbivores and plant pathogens. We use Scaptomyza leafminers, and mustard plants hosts and foliar symbionts in the genus Pseudomonas in laboratory and field experiments. In the field we work principally at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL).
How are ecological interactions between plants and their predators affected by plant secondary compounds (toxins)?
Leafminers are highly susceptible to parasitoid wasp attack and we are dissecting the adaptations in Scaptomyza leafminers that facilitate escape or resistance, including the presence or mustard oils in the bodies of the flies, and behaviors that may facilitate escape from wasps.
How do vectors influence population genetic structure of parasites?
We are studying interactions between desert mistletoe (Phoradendron californicum), its legume tree host plants and the main vector for mistletoes—the Phainopepla—a desert bird that feeds mainly on fruits of mistletoe in the winter and spring. The population dynamics of mistletoe was studied at the University of Arizona by Aukema and Martinez del Rio and we are adding a population genetic component to study the population genetic structures of mistletoes and their hosts. We are also conducting experiments to test for local adaptation in mistletoes to different tree species and dissection of isolating mechanisms that facilitate host tracking.
Selected Publications
Whiteman, N.K. Co-infections and the third trophic level. Functional Ecology (in press). (Commentary)
Whiteman, N.K., Groen, S.C., Chevasco, D., Beckwith, N., Gregory, T.R., Denoux, C., Mammarella, N., Ausubel, F.M. and N.E. Pierce. (2011) Mining the plant-insect interface with a leafmining Drosophila of Arabidopsis. Molecular Ecology 20:995-1014. (Also see a Perspectives Article on this manuscript in the same issue of Molecular Ecology by D. Giron and E. Huguet, pp. 990-994).
Parker, P.G., E. Buckles, N.K. Whiteman, H. Farrington, K. Petren, J.L. Bollmer, G. Jimenez-Uzcategui. (2011) 110 Years of Avipoxvirus in the Galapagos Islands. PLoSOne 6(1):e15989.
Whiteman, N.K. & Gloss, A.D. (2010) Nematode debt to bacteria. Nature 468:641-642 (News & Views article on Danchin et al., 2010, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 107:17651-17656).
Whiteman, N.K. & Jander, G. (2010) Genome-enabled research on the ecology of plant-insect interactions. Plant Physiology 145:475-478.
Whiteman, N.K. (2009) Functional genetics and genomics. In N.S. Sohdi and P.R. Ehrlich, Conservation Biology for All, Oxford University Press.
Whiteman, N.K., V.S. Dosanjh, R.L. Palma, J.M. Hull, R.T. Kimball, P. Sánchez, J.H. Sarasola & P.G. Parker (2009) Molecular and morphological divergence in a pair of closely related birds and their ectoparasites. Journal of Parasitology 95:1372-1382.
Peters, M.B., N.K. Whiteman, C. Hagen, P.G. Parker & T.C. Glenn (2009) Eight polymorphic microsatellite markers isolated from the widespread avian louse Colpocephalum turbinatum (Phthiraptera: Amblycera: Menoponidae). Molecular Ecology Resources 9:910-912.
Peters, M.B., C. Hagen, N.K. Whiteman, P.G. Parker & T.C. Glenn (2009) Characterization of ten microsatellite loci in the avian louse, Degeeriella regalis (Phthiraptera: Ischnocera: Philopteridae). Molecular Ecology Resources 9:882-884.
Peters, M.D., Q-Y. Xiang, D.T. Thomas, J. Stucky & N.K. Whiteman (2009) Genetic analyses of the federally endangered Echinacea laevigata using amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLP): Inferences in population genetic structure and mating system. Conservation Genetics 10:1-14.
Whiteman, N.K. & N.E. Pierce (2008) Delicious poison: Genetics of Drosophila host plant preference. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 23:473-478.
Troemel, E.R., M.-A. Félix, N.K. Whiteman, A. Barrière & F.M. Ausubel (2008) Microsporidia are natural intracellular parasites of the nematode C. elegans. PLoS Biology 6: e309. PDF (Also see a Primer by J. Hodgkin and F.A. Partridge in the same issue of and a Research Highlights article by A. Jermy in the February 2009 issue of Nature Reviews Microbiology).
Whiteman, N.K. & R.W. Sites (2008) Aquatic insects as umbrella species for ecosystem protection in Death Valley National Park. Journal of Insect Conservation 12:499-509.
Hull, J.M., W. Savage, J.L. Bollmer, R.T. Kimball, P.G. Parker, N.K. Whiteman & H.B. Ernest (2008) On the origin of the Galápagos Hawk: An examination of phenotypic differentiation and mitochondrial paraphyly. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 95:779-789.
Whiteman, N.K. (2008) Between a whale bone and the deep blue sea: The provenance of dwarf males in whale bone-eating tubeworms. Molecular Ecology 17:4395-4397.
Santiago-Alarcon, D., N.K. Whiteman, P.G. Parker, R.E. Ricklefs & G. Valkiunas (2008) Patterns of parasite abundance and distribution in island populations of Galápagos endemic birds. Journal of Parasitology 94:584-590.
Whiteman, N.K. (2008) Lousy heirlooms: Lice help illuminate the recent evolutionary history of an Australian bird. Heredity 101:105-106.
Whiteman, N.K., R.T. Kimball & P.G. Parker (2007) Co-phylogeography and comparative population genetics of the threatened Galápagos Hawk and three ectoparasite species: Ecology shapes population histories within parasite communities. Molecular Ecology 22:4759-4773[COVER FEATURE].
Merkel, J., H. Jones, N.K. Whiteman, N. Gottdenker, H. Vargas, E. K. Travis, R.E. Miller & P.G. Parker (2007) Microfilariae in Galapagos penguins (Spheniscus mendiculus) and Flightless cormorants (Phalacrocorax harrisi): Genetics, morphology and prevalence. Journal of Parasitology 93:495-503.
Whiteman, N.K., K.D. Matson, J.L. Bollmer & P.G. Parker (2006) Disease ecology in the Galápagos Hawk (Buteo galapagoensis): Host genetic diversity, parasite load and natural antibodies. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B, Biological Sciences 273:797-804 [cover FEATURE].
Bollmer, J.L., R.T. Kimball, N.K. Whiteman, J.H. Sarasola & P.G. Parker (2006) Phylogeography of the Galápagos Hawk (Buteo galapagoensis): A recent arrival to the Galápagos Islands. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 39:237-247.
Whiteman, N.K., P. Sánchez, J. Merkel, H. Klompen & P.G. Parker (2006) Cryptic host specificity of an avian skin mite (Epidermoptidae) vectored by louseflies (Hippoboscidae) associated with two endemic Galápagos bird species. Journal of Parasitology 92:1218-1228.
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