Dr. Adam D. Leaché
Genome Center & Section of Evolution & Ecology
One Shields Avenue
University of California
Davis, California 95616
phone: 530-754-7729
email: aleache@ucdavis.edu
About Me
My research is focused on systematics, phylogenetics, phylogeography, population genetics, and species delimitation.
I am currently an NSF bioinformatics postdoctoral researcher working with Bruce Rannala (UC Davis) and Ziheng Yang (University College London).
I am joining the faculty at the University of Washington in September 2010 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology and Curator of Genetic Resources and Herpetology at The Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture.
Recent publications:
Leaché, A. D. and J. W. Sites Jr. Chromosome evolution and diversification in North American spiny lizards (genus Sceloporus). Cytogenetic and Genome Research. In Press.
Leaché, A. D. 2010. Species trees for spiny lizards (genus Sceloporus): identifying points of concordance and conflict between nuclear and mitochondrial data. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 54:162-171.
Leaché, A. D. 2009. Species tree discordance traces to phylogeographic clade boundaries in North American fence lizards (Sceloporus). Systematic Biology. 58:547-559.
Leaché, A. D., Koo, M. S., Spencer, C. L., Papenfuss, T. J., Fisher, R. N., and J. A. McGuire. 2009. Quantifying ecological, morphological, and genetic variation to delimit species in the coast horned lizard species complex (Phrynosoma). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA. 106:12418-12423. PDF
Brandley, M. C., Warren, D. L., Leaché, A. D., and J. A. McGuire. 2009. Homoplasy and clade support. Systematic Biology, 58:184-198. PDF
Shingworks
I want to send a big thanks to my friend Der-shing for creating another awesome piece of art.
This artwork describes some of the evolutionary dynamics occurring at the contact zones between various species of lizards in the genus Sceloporus, which is the focus of a paper that I recently published in Systematic Biology.
You can see more of Der-shing’s work at her website (www.shingworks.com) and at deviantart, or by cruising through my site and looking for animated lizards.
Simulation Study
For my postdoctoral research, I’m studying the performance of species tree inference techniques using computer simulations. Our goal is to characterize how phylogenetic accuracy responds to changes in population size and generation times.
This particular graph was generated from 2,500 Bayesian analyses of concatenated data (100 loci each), and highlights the regions of “demographic space” that show the biggest improvement in phylogenetic accuracy compared to analyses using only 10 loci.
Horned Lizard Wins Cover
Our new article on species delimitation in the coast horned lizard is featured on the cover of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Thanks to Paul Bratescu for letting us submit this great photo of Phrynosoma blainvillii for the cover. You can see more of Paul’s photography on his Flickr photostream.
The article is available for free download at the PNAS website.
Positions Available!
I’m looking for excellent undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers to join my lab at the University of Washington starting in Autumn 2010!
Please send me an email if you’re interested in any of the opportunities available in my lab.
Last update:
December 2, 2009