Dr. Nicole Valenzuela
Dr. Nicole Valenzuela
I am an evolutionary biologist, and my research involves studies of:
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Shaffer HB, P Minx, DE Warren, AM Shedlock, RC Thomson, N Valenzuela,....R. Literman et 40 altri. 2013. The western painted turtle genome, a model for the evolution of extreme physiological adaptations in a slowly evolving lineage. Genome Biology. In press. Valenzuela N., J. Neuwald, and R. Literman. 2012. Transcriptional evolution underlying vertebrate sexual development. Developmental Dynamics. DOI: 10.1002/dvdy.23897. Radhakrishnan, S, R. Literman, A. Severin, and N. Valenzuela. 2013. Comparative transcriptomic dynamics during embryonic gonadal development in turtles with genotypic and temperature-dependent sex determination. Plant & Animal Genome XXI Conference, San Diego, CA. |
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Shaffer HB, P Minx, DE Warren, AM Shedlock, RC Thomson, N Valenzuela,....S. Radhakrishnan et 40 altri. 2013. The western painted turtle genome, a model for the evolution of extreme physiological adaptations in a slowly evolving lineage. Genome Biology. In press. Radhakrishnan S, R. Literman, A. Severin, and N. Valenzuela. 2013. Comparative transcriptomic dynamics during embryonic gonadal development in turtles with genotypic and temperature-dependent sex determination. Plant & Animal Genome XXI Conference, San Diego, CA. |
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At the Valenzuela lab she worked on a phylogenomics project to study the evolution of sex chromosomes and sex-linked genes in turtles. Daleen's work was funded by the National Science Foundation (MCB 0815354 to N. Valenzuela and S.V. Edwards).
Shaffer HB, P Minx, DE Warren, AM Shedlock, RC Thomson, N Valenzuela,....D. Badenhorst et 40 altri. 2013. The western painted turtle genome, a model for the evolution of extreme physiological adaptations in a slowly evolving lineage. Genome Biology. In press. Badenhorst, D., R. Stanyon, T. Engstrom, and N. Valenzuela. 2013. A ZZ/ZW microchromosome system in the spiny softshell turtle, Apalone spinifera reveals an intriguing sex chromosome conservation in Trionychidae. Chromosome Research. 12(2): 137-147. DOI 10.1007/s10577-013-9343-2. |
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At the Valenzuela lab she worked on an eco-genomics project to study the effect of fluctuating temperature on the expression of genes involved in gonadogenesis in TSD turtles. Her work was funded by the National Science Foundation (IOS 0743284 to N. Valenzuela). Jennifer is now a Research Associate at the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation Biology at Colorado State University. Neuwald J.L. and Valenzuela N. 2011. The Lesser Known Challenge of Climate Change: Thermal Variance and Sex-Reversal in Vertebrates with Temperature-Dependent Sex Determination. PloS ONE 6(3): e18117. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0018117. Valenzuela N., J. Neuwald, and R. Literman. 2013. Transcriptional evolution underlying vertebrate sexual development. Developmental Dynamics. 242:307–319. |
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Dan's work was funded by the National Science Foundation (MCB 0815354 to N. Valenzuela and S.V. Edwards). Dan now works for the National Institute of General Medical Sciences at the NIH. Shaffer HB, P Minx, DE Warren, AM Shedlock, RC Thomson, N Valenzuela,....DE Janes et 40 altri. 2013. The western painted turtle genome, a model for the evolution of extreme physiological adaptations in a slowly evolving lineage. Genome Biology. In press. Janes DE, Elsey RM, Langan EM, Moore B, Edwards SV and N Valenzuela. 2013. Sex-biased expression of sex-differentiating genes Foxl2 and Fgf9 in American alligators, Alligator mississippiensis. Sexual Development. In press. Janes, D.E., Valenzuela N., Ezaz T., Amemiya C., and Edwards S.V. 2011. Sex chromosome evolution in Amniotes: applications for bacterial artificial chromosome libraries. Journal of Biomedicine and Biotechnology Vol 2011, doi:10.1155/2011/132975 |
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I am now a faculty at the Veterinary Medicine Program of the University of Antioquia, Colombia. Ceballos, C. and Valenzuela, N. 2011. The role of sex-specific plasticity in shaping sexual dimorphism in a long-lived vertebrate, the snapping turtle Chelydra serpentina. Evolutionary Biology 38: 163-181. Ceballos C.P, D.C. Adams, J.B. Iverson, y N. Valenzuela. 2012. Phylogenetic patterns of sexual size dimorphism in turtles and their implications for Rensch´s rule. Evolutionary Biology. DOI: 10.1007/s11692-012-9199-y.. |
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I am now a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Biological Sciences at Auburn University. |
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My work was funded by the National Science Foundation (DBI 0511958 to T. Excalona), and the Scott Neotropical Fund from the Cleveland Zoo (to N. Valenzuela [PI] and T. Escalona [CoPI]). Escalona, T., Engstrom T.N., Hernandez O.E., Bock B.C., Vogt R.C. and Valenzuela N. 2009. Population genetics of the endangered South American freshwater turtle, Podocnemis unifilis, inferred from microsatellite DNA data. Conservation Genetics. DOI 10.1007/s10592-008-9746-3 Escalona, T., Adams, D.C., and Valenzuela, N. 2009. Nesting ecology in the freshwater turtle Podocnemis unifilis: spatiotemporal patterns and inferred explanations. Functional Ecology DOI 10.1111/j.1365-2435.2009.01562.x |
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I am now a Postdoc in the Ecological Genetics Research Unit at
the University of Helsinki.
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Martinez, P., Ezaz T., Valenzuela, N., Georges, A., and Graves J.A.M. 2008. An XX/XY heteromorphic sex chromosome system in the Australian chelid turtle Emydura macquarii, a new piece in the puzzle of sex chromosome evolution in turtles. Chromosome Research: 16(6): 815-825. DOI 10.1007/s10577-008-1228-4. |
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I am now a PhD student in the Molecular, Cellular and Structural Biology program at the University of Minnesota.
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Kagima, B., Valenzuela, N., Engstrom, T., and Bock, B. 2004. Preliminary population genetic study of the yellow spotted Amazon river turtle (Podocnemis unifilis) using microsatellite DNA data. Annual Meeting of the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology, New Orleans, Louisiana. Kagima, B. and N. Valenzuela. 2005. Maternal effect genes for sex determination in painted turtles, Chrysemys picta. Joint Meeting of the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles and the Herpetologists' League, Tampa, Florida. |
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Morrone S. and Siegle A. 2009. Effects of environment on growth. Iowa Academy of Sciences Annual Meeting,Des Moines, IA. |
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O’Shaughnessy
K, Valenzuela, N, Neuwald, N, Literman, R, Manternach,
T, Harris, A. 2010. The genomics of temperature dependent sex
determination in Chrysemys picta. Experimental Biology FASEB Annual
Meeting, Anaheim, CA. Poster & Invited oral presentation - Winner
of NSF travel grant for undergraduates - Winner of "ASBMB's Best
Poster Theme" in the category of Systems Biology, Synthetic Biology,
and Signal Transduction.
O'Shaughnessy K, Valenzuela, N, Neuwald, J, Literman, R, Manternach, T, Harris, A. 2010. The Genetic mechanism of temperature-dependent sex determination in the painted turtle. Capital University Research Symposium, Columbus, OH. Winner of Capital University's endowed "Bruning Award" for excellence in research. |
 I
was an ITA
intern at the Valenzuela Lab during 2010-2011. I am a Biology major at ISU. I worked on
developmental biology and the effect of incubation temperature on growth of painted turtles posthatching.
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He is now an Assistant Professor at SUNY-Oswego. |
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I
am a third 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 the evolution and transcription of
Dmrt1 and its role in the sex determination of turtles.
I am a second year Master's student in the Interdepartmental Genetics
program. I am interested in evolutionary developmental biology
of sex determination in turtles.
Daleen
was a postdoctoral fellow. Her PhD work focused on the Rattus
complex and its role as a reservoir for human pathogens using
a molecular cytogenetic, phylogenomic and gene expression approach.
Jennifer
was a postdoctoral fellow. Her PhD work focused on the temporal
changes in population genetic dynamics of the eastern collared
lizard, Crotaphytus collaris collaris, in response
to forest fire management. 
Dan
was a postdoctoral fellow. He is 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
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 
Chris
was a Ph.D. rotation student in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
program. Chris is interested in the evolution of sex determination.
Jeff
was a Ph.D. rotation student from the Bioinformatics & Computational
Biology program. He worked on sex ratio evolution models.
Jacqueline
was a MSc rotation student from the Interdepartmental Genetics
program. she worked on the molecular evolution of genes involved
in sex determination. 
Will
was a Ph.D. rotation student from the Bioinformatics & Computational
Biology program. He worked on the transcriptomic analysis of gonadal
development in turtles.