Richard Kliman
Professor and Chair, Department of Biological Sciences | Cedar Crest College
Allentown, PA, UNITED STATES
Evolutionary and ecological geneticist, with significant editorial experience and professional contributions
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Biography
Richard Kliman is a professor of biological sciences at Cedar Crest College, having taught previously at Radford University and Kean University. He currently teaches courses in genetics, ecology/environmental issues, human biology/health issues, and statistics (undergraduate and graduate). He has served as a program director at the National Science Foundation (evolutionary processes cluster in the Division of Environmental Biology), as a lead editor for Nature Education/Scitable, and as an associate editor for Genetica and The Journal of Molecular Evolution. He is the editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Biology (Elsevier, Inc. 2016) and lead editor of the EvoED Digital Library, a peer-reviewed educational resource; he also serves on the Education and Outreach Committee of the Society for the Study of Evolution.
Kliman's research focuses on questions in evolution and ecology, relying on a combination of laboratory, statistical, field-based, computational, and theoretical approaches. Most of his research uses multi-gene population genetics/genomics data, inferring evolutionary and ecological processes from patterns of DNA sequence variation within and among species. He is particularly interested in (1) reconstructing the complex natural history of closely related species, (2) reconstructing recent population processes and adaptive evolution, and (3) inferring the effectiveness of natural selection, particularly in the context of varying levels of genetic recombination.
Industry Expertise (1)
Education/Learning
Areas of Expertise (6)
Science
Genetics
Ecology
Evolutionary Biology
Statistical Analysis
Computational Biology
Education (2)
Wesleyan University: PhD, Biology 1990
Dissertation: Quantitative genetic analysis of the photoresponse in the Djungarian hamster, Phodopus sungorus
Colby College: B.A., Biology & Music 1984
Affiliations (4)
- American Association for the Advancement of Science
- Genetics Society of America
- National Center for Science Education
- Society for the Study of Evolution
Links (2)
Languages (1)
- English
Patents (1)
Method of designing an addressable array suitable for detection of nucleic acid sequence differences using the ligase detection reaction and addressable arrays
WO 2001079548 A3
2003-02-06
The present invention is directed to a method of designing a plurality of capture oligonucleotide probes for use on a support to which complementary oligonucleotide probes will hybridize with little mismatch, where the plural capture oligonucleotide probes have melting temperatures within a narrow range. The first step of the method involves providing a first set of a plurality of tetramers of four nucleotides linked together, where (1) each tetramer within the set differs from all other tetramers in the set by at least two nucleotide bases, (2) no two tetramers within a set are complementary to one another, (3) no tetramers within a set are palindromic or dinucleotide repeats, and (4) no tetramer within a set has one or less or three or more G or C nucleotides. Groups of 2 to 4 of the tetramers from the first set are linked together to form a collection of multimer units. From the collection of multimer units, all multimer units formed from the same tetramer and all multimer units having a melting temperature in °C of less than 4 times the number of tetramers forming a multimer unit are removed to form a modified collection of multimer units. The modified collection of multimer units is arranged in a list in order of melting temperature. The order of the modified collection of multimer units is randomized in 2°C increments of melting temperature.
Research Grants (2)
Fine-scale recombination, variation, divergence, and codon bias in Drosophila
National Institute of Health $267,560
2012-01-01
One of the most influential findings of the last 20 years in molecular evolutionary studies has been that recombination rate is frequently correlated with nucleotide sequence diversity within a species. In Drosophila species, this relationship has been attributed to natural selection, while neutral causes have been attributed as primary contributors to this association in humans. However, the relationship of recombination to diversity has not been observed in all species examined, and conflicting reports also exist on whether recombination rate is associated with interspecies sequence divergence or codon usage bias. If there is fine-scale heterogeneity in recombination rate across a genome, the conflicting conclusions could result from differences in the scale with which recombination is measured. Additionally, interpreting the evolutionary causes of these associations to recombination rate can be facilitated by evaluations at multiple scales. This proposal takes a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach to tackling these oft- cited relationships. Building upon a successful preliminary study, the investigators will construct very high resolution linkage maps using the species Drosophila pseudoobscura, and correlate local recombination rates to various sequence motifs. They will also generate multiple whole-genome sequence assemblies of this species from which to carefully examine patterns of nucleotide diversity at an unprecedented scale. Finally, extensive modeling is proposed to examine possible effects of background selection and selective sweeps to infer conditions under which they can operate to produce the observed associations between recombination rate and diversity, divergence, or codon bias. The investigators have extensive experience with all of the proposed work, as illustrated by the preliminary results reported.
Assessment of DNA sequence variation and population structure in queen conch of Belize
Conservation International $30,000
2006-06-01
The primary objective of this study is to assess levels and patterns of DNA sequence variation in Belize populations of the queen conch, Strombus gigas. We aim to determine if there is sufficient genetic polymorphism (e.g, as measured by pairwise variation) and population structure (e.g., as measured by Fst) to estimate gene flow. Estimating gene flow requires some degree of population structure and a sufficient number of sampled polymorphic sites in DNA sequences. That is, at a subset of positions in the DNA sequences, there must e some variation among individuals. However, polymorphism is not sufficient to estimate gene flow; there must be sufficient variation among populations (i.e., structure) in the distribution of polymorphism to differentiate populations from each other. These results will provide the data needed for subsequent work that will examine if the shallow-water queen conch population in the Sapodilla Cayes Marine Reserve is genetically distinct from other populations (e.g., deep-water populations, Port Honduras, Middle and North Mesoamerican Barrier Reef).
Articles (4)
Density, age structure, and length of queen conch (Strombus gigas) in shallow-water aggregations in the Sapodilla Cayes Marine Reserve, Belize
Caribbean Journal of Science
2014-11-01
John A. Cigliano and Richard M. Kliman
Evidence that Natural Selection on Codon Usage in Drosophila pseudoobscura Varies Across Codons
G3: Genes | Genomes | Genetics
2014-04-01
Richard M. Kliman
Estimation of isolation times of the island species in the Drosophila simulans complex from multilocus DNA sequence data
PLoS One
2008-06-18
Shannon R. McDermott and Richard M. Kliman
The population genetics of the origin and divergence of the Drosophila simulans complex species
Genetics
2000-12-01
Richard M. Kliman, Peter Andolfatto, Jerry A. Coyne, Frantz Depaulis, Martin Kreitman, Andrew J. Berry, James McCarter, John Wakeley & Jody Hey
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