Laboratory of Evolutionary and Ecological Genomics
Dr. Nicole Valenzuela
Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal BiologyIowa State University
239 Bessey Hall
Ames, IA 50011
(515) 294-1285
nvalenzu@iastate.edu
People
Dr. Nicole Valenzuela
Robert Literman
Srihari Radhakrishnan
Emily Barks
Dr. Daleen Badenhorst
Dr. Daniel Janes
Former Lab MembersDr. Claudia Ceballos
Dr. Jennifer Neuwald
Dr. Jennifer Deitloff
Dr. Tibisay Escalona
Dr. Takahito Shikano
Pedro Martinez
Andrea R. LeClere
Barbara Kagima
Sonia Morrone and Anthony Siegle
Katherine L. O'Shaughnessy
Kevin Wenceslao
Chris Chandler
Jeffrey Sander
Jacqueline Farrel
William Pett
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I
am a second year Ph.D. student in the Bioinformatics & Computational
Biology program. I am interested in the transcriptomic analysis of gonadal
development in turtles.
I am a first year Master's student in the Interdepartmental Genetics
program. I am interested in evolutionary developmental biology
of sex determination in turtles, particularly the involvement
of epigenetics processes.
I
am a postdoctoral fellow. My previous work focused on the Rattus complex and its role as a reservoir for human pathogens using a molecular cytogenetic, phylogenomic and gene expression approach. I am now working on a phylogenomics project
to study the evolution of sex chromosomes and sex-linked genes in turtles.
I
am a postdoctoral fellow. I am an evolutionary geneticist interested
in the evolution of sex-determining mechanisms and sex chromosomes.
I
completed my Ph.D. in the EEB program at ISU in 2010. I am interested
in understanding the causes and consequences of phenotypic evolution.
My PhD work focused on phenotypic plasticity of body growth and
its effect on the evolution of sexual size dimorphism in Podocnemis
expansa and Chelydra serpentina and the evolution of
Rensch's rule in turtles. My work was funded by the National Science
Foundation (DEB 0808047) and the Turtle Conservation Fund, to
N. Valenzuela (PI) and C Ceballos (CoPI).
I
am a postdoctoral fellow. My previous work focused on the temporal
changes in population genetic dynamics of the eastern collared
lizard, Crotaphytus collaris collaris, in response to
forest fire management. I am now working on an eco-genomics project
to study the effect of fluctuating temperature on the expression
of genes involved in gonadogenesis in TSD turtles.
I
completed my Ph.D. in the EEB program at ISU in 2008. My work
focused on the ecological processes responsible for species co-ocurrence
patterns in two species of Plethodon salamanders. I was
co-advised by Dr. Dean Adams. 
I
was an NSF postdoctoral fellow. I am very interested in the ecology,
life history evolution and conservation of freshwater turtles
in the Neotropics. I worked on the metapopulation genetic analysis
of Podocnemis unifilis turtles in South America. 
Postdoctoral
associate. I worked on the molecular evolution of sex related
genes across reptiles and other vertebrates that possess contrasting
sex determining mechanisms, in order to shed light on the evolution
of sex determination.
I
was a Ph.D. student in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Program (2006-2008) and the Genetics Program
(2008-2009) at ISU. I worked on sex chromosome evolution in turtles, particularly
in discovering a novel XX/XY system in the Australian chelid Emydura
macquarii. I am now a graduate student in Veterinary Medicine
at ISU.
I
graduated from the undergraduate Genetics program at ISU. For my
honors thesis I worked during 2004-2005 on a project aimed to compare the expression
profiles of sex genes (genes involved in sex differentiation)
between turtles with temperature-dependent sex determination (Chrysemys
picta) and turtles with genotypic sex determination (Apalone
mutica) incubated under identical conditions. We were searching
for key differences to understand the mechanics of both sex determining
systems. 
I was a Biology undergraduate at ISU, and during 2002-2005 I worked on population genetics of Podocnemis
unifilis turtles from Colombia and Peru, and on maternal-effect
genes related to sex differentiation in Chrysemys picta turtles
from North America. I completed my Master’s in 2008 in the EEB program
at ISU working on Wildlife Management with Dr. Sue Fairbanks. I
am now a PhD student at the University of Nebraska Lincoln.
We were 
I
was a summer intern with the 
I
was an 
I
was a Ph.D. rotation student in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
program. I am interested in the evolution of sex determination.
I
was a Ph.D. rotation student from the Bioinformatics & Computational
Biology program. I worked on sex ratio evolution models.
I
was a MSc rotation student from the Interdepartmental Genetics
program. I worked on the molecular evolution of genes involved
in sex determination. 
I
was a Ph.D. rotation student from the Bioinformatics & Computational
Biology program. I worked on the transcriptomic analysis of gonadal
development in turtles.