Associate Professor Ph.D. (2011) University of Wisconsin, Madison Research Interests - We are interested in understanding how sex chromosomes have repeatedly evolved across the tree of life. We combine developmental genetics, molecular genetics, and bioinformatic approaches to understand key processes in the formation of sex chromosomes, including the regulation of meiotic recombination and the developmental genetics of sex determination. We use stickleback fish as a model system to understand these processes. Current Grant Support - NSF CAREER: “Meiotic double strand break repair on sex chromosomes.” NIH R01: “Functional analysis of the Anti-Müllerian Hormone as a convergently acquired master sex determination gene.” Research Research Areas: Genomics and Bioinformatics Evolutionary Genetics Developmental Biology Molecular Genetics Selected Publications Selected Publications: White MA. 2024. News & Views: Rapid evolution of body plans. Nature Ecol. Evol. Shaw D, Naftaly AFS, White MA. 2024. Positive selection drives cis-regulatory evolution across the threespine stickleback Y chromosome. Mol. Biol. Evol. 41: msae20. Shaw D and White MA. 2022. The evolution of gene regulation on sex chromosomes. Trends in Genetics. 38: 844-855. Nath S, Welch LA, Flanagan MK, White MA. 2022. Meiotic pairing and double strand break formation along the heteromorphic threespine stickleback sex chromosomes. Chromosome Research. 30: 429-442. Naftaly AFS, Pau S, White MA. 2021. Long-read sequencing reveals widespread sex-specific alternative splicing in threespine stickleback fish. Genome Research. 31: 1486-1497. Nath S, Shaw DE, White MA. 2021. Improved contiguity of the threespine stickleback genome using long read sequencing. G3. 11: jkab007. Peichel CL, McCann SR, Ross JA, Naftaly AFS, Urton JR, Cech JN, Grimwood J, Schmutz J, Myers RM, Kingsley DM, White MA. 2020. Assembly of the threespine stickleback Y chromosome reveals convergent signatures of sex chromosome evolution. Genome Biology. 21: 177. Shanfelter AF, Archambeault SL, White MA. 2019. Divergent fine-scale recombination landscapes between a freshwater and marine population of threespine stickleback fish. Genome Biology and Evolution. 11: 1552-1572.
