Bridgett vonHoldt
Princeton University, NJ·Ecology & Evolution
When related species interbreed, pieces of one species' DNA can persist in the other long after the first has nearly disappeared. This is called ghost introgression.
- Fields
Ecology & Evolution
Genetics
- Topics
red wolf
Canis rufus
coyote
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2030
What they work on
- Quantify how red wolf ghost ancestry in Gulf Coast canids relates to ecology, by capturing, genetically sampling and radio-monitoring animals across gradients of mortality risk and resources.
- Develop a SNP panel, a set of single-letter DNA markers, to non-invasively monitor red wolf ghost ancestry and behavior-related traits across large landscapes.
- Build an optimization framework that ranks individuals for conservation value, favoring those with the most ghost variation and long blocks of red wolf DNA.
- Test whether red wolf ghost variation can be enriched through a short-term captive breeding experiment with planned pairings at the Endangered Wolf Center.
More about the research
It can hide genetic variation from endangered or extinct species inside the genomes of common ones. Coyotes along the American Gulf Coast carry varying amounts of "ghost" ancestry from the endangered red wolf. This project asks whether that hidden DNA can help recover the red wolf. It also asks what ecological conditions allow it to persist.
Why it matters
The red wolf is endangered and has little genetic diversity left. Recovering lost red wolf variation from Gulf Coast coyotes could give recovery programs a new source of genetic diversity. Low-cost non-invasive DNA monitoring could help managers find high-value animals and priority habitats. The approach could serve as a model for other endangered species facing extinction.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Xinjun Zhang
University of Michigan, MI·Genetics
Develop machine learning methods to detect archaic introgression from unknown 'ghost' archaic humans in East Asian genomes.
Kristen Ruegg
Colorado State University-Fort Collins, CO·Ecology & Evolution
Measure migratory connections, genetic variation and survival and reproduction for three declining grassland bird species across their breeding and wintering grounds.
Diego Sustaita
California State University-San Marcos, CA·Ecology & Evolution·Early-career
Measure biting, climbing and swimming performance of the endangered salt marsh harvest mouse and co-occurring wetland rodents in the laboratory using kinematic (motion) analyses.
The school
Princeton University: 26 labs on PI Pages, $559M a year on research, 403 research doctorates a year.
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