McGill University
Ph.D. candidate
Supervisor: Rowan Barrett
Start: 2018-09-01
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Project

Interaction between environmental stressors and plasticity in DNA methylation and gene expression across multiple time scales
In this thesis, I will use laboratory experiments and field collections to investigate how fish respond to environmental stressors, such as predation stress and changes in dissolved oxygen (DO), through plasticity in DNA methylation (DNAm) and gene expression on multiple time scales: short-term, developmental, and evolutionary. I will use laboratory populations of guppies (Poecilia reticulata) to study the impacts of exposure to alarm cue on DNAm in the brain over time scales relevant to both activational (Chapter 1) and developmental behavioral plasticity (Chapter 2). I will also determine how observed changes in DNAm influence gene expression (Chapter 3). Then, I will use field collections and acclimation experiments on Enteromius apleurogramma and Enteromius numayeri to disentangle plastic from evolutionary differences in gene expression of fish from divergent DO environments (Chapter 4).

Keywords

plasticity, evolution, Epigenetics, gene expression

Publications

1- Genetic association with boldness and maternal performance in a free-ranging population of grey seals (Halichoerus grypus)
Bubac, Christine M., Catherine I. Cullingham, Janay A. Fox, W. Don Bowen, Cornelia E. den Heyer, David W. Coltman
2021 Heredity

2- Conservation translocations and post-release monitoring: Identifying trends in failures, biases, and challenges from around the world
Bubac, Christine M., Amy C. Johnson, Janay A. Fox, Catherine I. Cullingham
2019 Biological Conservation

3- Natural history study of an understudied sea catfish species from Panama (Siluriformes: Ariidae)
Fox, Janay, Máximo Jiménez A, Madlen Stange
2021 Neotropical Ichthyology