Reade Roberts
Bio
PhD, Cell & Developmental Biology, Vanderbilt University
BS, Biochemistry, Susquehanna University
The overarching strategy of my research program is to inventively fill gaps in biological knowledge by drawing on unexpected tools in the existing diversity of life. I love the pursuit of linking differences in complex traits to specific evolved genetic changes. My ultimate goal is to produce new knowledge with dual impact – informing both our understanding of how genes and species evolve, and providing basic biology insights that may improve the human condition. When I’m away from the lab, I love to spend time with my family, which includes retired racing greyhounds. Having adopted a few of my own over the years, and fostered many more until they have found permanent homes, I enjoy promoting adoption and awareness of the breed. I’m also an avid collector of vinyl records across genres, and am always looking for new discoveries.
Publications
- Genetic basis of ecologically relevant body shape variation among four genera of cichlid fishes , MOLECULAR ECOLOGY (2023)
- Morphometric and Genetic Description of Trophic Adaptations in Cichlid Fishes , BIOLOGY-BASEL (2022)
- Polygenic sex determination produces modular sex polymorphism in an African cichlid fish , PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (2022)
- TCDD alters essential transcriptional regulators of osteogenic differentiation in multipotent mesenchymal stem cells , TOXICOLOGICAL SCIENCES (2022)
- Origin of a Giant Sex Chromosome , MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION (2021)
- Exploratory behaviour is associated with microhabitat and evolutionary radiation in Lake Malawi cichlids , ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR (2020)
- Chromosome-scale assemblies reveal the structural evolution of African cichlid genomes , GIGASCIENCE (2019)
- The genomics of invasion: characterization of red lionfish (Pterois volitans) populations from the native and introduced ranges , BIOLOGICAL INVASIONS (2019)
- The genomics of invasion: characterization of red lionfish (Pterois volitans) populations from the native and introduced ranges (vol 21, pg 2471, 2019) , BIOLOGICAL INVASIONS (2019)
- The intestinal environment as an evolutionary adaptation to mouthbrooding in the Astatotilapia burtoni cichlid , FEMS MICROBIOLOGY ECOLOGY (2019)
Grants
The current project proposes an innovative professional development (PD) program in environmental health research experiences for science high-school teachers from schools with high poverty levels in North Carolina. In a collaborative effort, experts from the College of Education and scientists affiliated with the Center for Human Health and Environment (CHHE), and the Comparative Medicine Institute (CMI) at NC State University will provide teachers (N=40) with unique authentic lab experiences. The 8-week summer research PD program aims at enhancing teachers?????????????????? environmental health literacy and research skills that will support novel science teaching strategies. The specific aims addressed by the program are the following: 1) to provide teachers with a practical understanding of the scientific method in mentored research projects examining links between environmental stressors and health; 2) to provide teachers with an understanding of core conceptual issues in toxicology; 3) to train teachers in ethical issues in scientific conduct, science communication, and public health; 4) to immerse teachers in authentic research lab experiences by using a cognitive apprenticeship model; and 5) to develop a comprehensive evaluation plan in order to assess the short- and long- term PD outcomes. In the proposed environmental health science (EHS) research PD program, teachers will be integrated into genuine research projects and attend lab meetings, gaining general knowledge of how research is conducted and specialized knowledge related to ongoing projects in their host lab. Additionally, teachers in the program will come together one day per week in a workshop environment, to share their diversity of research experiences and gain additional training in biological concepts and ethical issues related to environmental health sciences.
Maladaptive diets contribute to major, pervasive health issues worldwide. When diets are chronically insufficient or nutrient-poor, development and immunity is impaired, and ultimately mortality can result. In contrast, the Western pattern diet commonly eaten in the United States is maladaptive in its excess, and is associated with pressing national health concerns, including heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. Increasingly, obesity and other metabolic syndromes are found in children, and serve as a predictor of poor life-long health and early mortality. The digestive tract processes the diet and absorbs nutrients, and provides important immune functions. The digestive tract does not function in isolation, rather it works in concert with complex microbial communities in order to properly, or improperly, function. Links have been made between host genetic variation and both metabolic disease and gut microbial communities, demonstrating that response to a maladaptive diet is impacted by genetics, commensal organisms, and their interaction. While a number of these associations have been made, a substantial portion of the human genetic variation explaining diet-related disease syndromes remains unknown. New approaches and model systems are needed to study natural genetic variation and its impact on digestive development, gut microbiota colonization, and susceptibility to metabolic disease. The proposed experiments will develop multiple cichlid fish species as a comparative model for such studies. The chosen species are closely related and interfertile, but have divergent gut morphology and adaptations to a range of diets, including specialization for processing all-vegetable and all-animal diets. These species will allow us to examine a broad range of untapped natural genetic variation underlying the impact of maladaptive diets on development, homeostasis, and gut microbial communities. In the proposed work we will create baseline data for the model system, and link developmental and metabolic phenotypes with insufficient and excessive nutrient diets, as well as the make up of the gut microbiota. We will also produce a unique hybrid cross between herbivorous and carnivorous species to maximize phenotypic variance for future mapping studies. Mapping in these families will be combined with comparative genomics strategies in natural populations to identify novel genetic factors involved in response to maladaptive diets, and thus new avenues for therapeutic intervention for diet-related disease. The proposed experiments will serve as the foundation for an expansive future body of work exploring the genetic basis of gut development, dietary response, and host-microbiota interactions.
I recently moved my lab to Texas A&M University. Dona Kanavy, who has completed her prelim exams in the genetics PhD program, moved with the lab to complete her research for her degree within the NCSU genetics program. Dona Kanavy will remain am NCSU student but will be paid their stipend at Texas A&M as research assistants. Their tuition and fees will be paid by Texas A&M. At Texas A&M, she will continue on their projects which are to develop a sterile mouse line (Dona Kanavy).
Abstract: For the greater part of the past century, genetic sex determination research has largely focused on a handful of ancient, chromosomal sex determination systems. More recently, genetic sex determination has been mapped in a broader set of species, revealing a diverse catalog of sex determination genes in a variety of chromosomal contexts. Polygenic sex determination (PSD) has also been confirmed in multiple taxa, where multiple genetic factors segregate and interact to direct sexual development. Since multiple genotypic types of each sex are produced in PSD systems, ????????????????sex??????????????? is no longer a binary trait, and different phenotypic classes can exist within a sex. While strides have been made in cataloging a range of genetic sex determination mechanisms, little is known about how new sex determination alleles evolve, and especially how they interact stably with existing sex determination mechanisms. Indeed, the integration of multiple sex determination alleles during development remains unstudied. We will use the cichlid fish behavioral model Astatotilapia burtoni as a functionally tractable model of polygenic sex determination that can be studied in both laboratory and natural population contexts. We have recently identified three novel sex determination alleles in this species, and a combination of genetic mapping and comparative genomics will be used to characterize these loci and identify the sex determination genes at each. Transgenic techniques have been optimized for A. burtoni, allowing direct testing of putative functional polymorphisms. Gene expression analyses through sexual development will supplement these mapping efforts, and provide understanding of how multiple genetic sex switches are integrated during development. Since A. burtoni is also a longstanding sexual behavior model, it provides excellent context for analysis of secondary sexual characteristics, including existing behavioral gene expression data, all in relation to the various modes of sex determination present in the species.