Generous grants from the W. M. Keck Foundation and the R. M. Parsons Foundation were used to create a new program of research and training at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. The Molecular Systematics Laboratory is equipped with a Perkin-Elmer 377XL automatic DNA sequencer, capable of both sequence and fragment analysis. Comprehensive facilities are present for tissue extraction, polymerase chain reaction, DNA electrophoresis, cloning, microsatellite analysis, DNA sequencing and long-term tissue sample storage. The program offers postdoctoral, graduate, and undergraduate training in molecular biodiversity research, including expeditionary field studies.

STAFF

The Molecular Systematics Laboratory is overseen by NHM curator Christine Thacker and hosts several postdoctoral, graduate and undergraduate researchers, engaged in molecular evolutionary research.

Christine Thacker  is the curator of ichthyology for the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.  She works on the systematics and evolution of gobioid fishes, a group of more than 2000 species.  Most gobioids are nearshore, benthic, and marine, but the group also includes freshwater, estuarine, planktonic, and amphibious representatives.  She uses both molecular and morphological data to investigate the relationships among gobies from intraspecific to interfamilial scales, and uses these phylogenies to frame studies of the evolution of size reduction, morphological complexity, ecology, and biogeography. Her field studies are concentrated in the archipelagos of the South Pacific.

Andrew Thompson is a specialist in the population dynamics and ecology of tropical gobies symbiotic with alpheid shrimps. For his postdoctoral work, Andrew is performing a variety of related projects on shrimp and goby phylogeny, coevolution, phylogeography, ecology and population genetics.

MOLECULAR SYSTEMATICS LAB INFORMATION

Voice: (213) 763-3429
Fax: (213) 748-4432