Karen Carleton
Professor
Contact
Email: kcarleto@umd.edu
Office Phone: 301.405.6929
Lab: 301.405.8121
Fax: 301.314.9358
Office Address: 2130 Bioscience Research Building
URL: http://cichlid.umd.edu/cichlidlabs/kc/carletonlab.html
Teaching
Graduate Program Affiliations
Research Interests
Evolution of visual systems and visual communication: genetics of visual system tuning; physical modeling of color signals and visual discrimination. African cichlid fishes serve as a model to explore how natural and sexual selection drive communication. Evolution of rod and cone phototransduction: tuning photoreceptor responsivity through evolution of protein structure and gene expression. A comparative genomic approachutilizing a diversity of vertebrates including mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and agnathans.
Recent Publications
Education
B.S. Chemical Engineering, Yale University 1980
Ph.D. Physical Chemistry, University of Colorado, 1987.
Miller Post-doctoral fellow, University of California, Berkeley, 1987-89.
Contact
Email: kcarleto@umd.edu
Office Phone: 301.405.6929
Lab: 301.405.8121
Fax: 301.314.9358
Office Address: 2130 Bioscience Research Building
URL: http://cichlid.umd.edu/cichlidlabs/kc/carletonlab.html
Teaching
- BSCI207 Principles of Biology III - Organismal Biology
- BSCI338C Genomics of Sensory Systems
- BSCI338V Biology of Vision
- BSCI338W Animal Communication
- PHYS 131 Fundamentals of Physics for Biologists
Graduate Program Affiliations
- BISI - Physiological Systems (PSYS)
- BISI - Behavior, Ecology, Evolution, & Systematics (BEES)
- BISI - Molecular & Cellular Biology (MOCB)
Research Interests
Evolution of visual systems and visual communication: genetics of visual system tuning; physical modeling of color signals and visual discrimination. African cichlid fishes serve as a model to explore how natural and sexual selection drive communication. Evolution of rod and cone phototransduction: tuning photoreceptor responsivity through evolution of protein structure and gene expression. A comparative genomic approachutilizing a diversity of vertebrates including mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and agnathans.
Recent Publications
- O'Quin KE, Schulte JE, Patel Z, Kahn N, Naseer Z, Wang H, Conte MA and Carleton KL. 2012. Evolution of cichlid vision via trans regulatory divergence. BMC Evol Biol 12: 251.
- Hofmann CM, Marshall NJ, Abdilleh K, Patel Z, Siebeck U and Carleton KL. 2012. Opsin evolution in damselfish: Convergence, reversal and parallel evolution across tuning sites. J Molecular Evol 75: 79-91.
- Smith AR, Ma K, Soares D, and Carleton KL 2012. Relative LWS cone opsin expression determines optomotor thresholds in Malawi cichlid fish. Genes, Brain and Behavior 11: 185-92.
- O'Quin KE, Smith D, Naser Z, Schulte J, Engel SD, Loh YH, Streelman JT, Boore JL, and Carleton KL. 2011. Divergence in cis-regulatory sequences surrounding the opsin gene arrays of African cichlid fishes. BMC Evol Biology 11:120.
- O'Quin KE, Hofmann CM, Hofmann HA, and Carleton KL. 2010. Parallel evolution of opsin gene expression in African cichlid fishes. Molecular Biology and Evolution 27:2839-54.
- Smith AR and Carleton KL. 2010. Allelic variation in Malawi cichlid fish opsins: a tale of two genera. Journal of Molecular Evolution 70: 593-604.
- Dalton BE, Cronin TW, Marshal NJ, and Carleton KL. 2010. The fish eye view: Are cichlids conspicuous? Journal of Experimental Biology 213 2243-55.
- Hofmann CM, O'Quin KE, Smith AR, and Carleton KL. 2010. Plasticity of opsin expression in cichlids from Lake Malawi. Molecular Ecology 19: 2064-74.
- Carleton KL, Hofmann CM, Klisz C, Patel Z, Chircus LM, Simenauer LH, Soodoo N, Albertson RC and Ser JR. 2010. Genetic basis of differential opsin gene experssion in cichlid fishes. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 23: 840-53.
- Hofmann CM, O'Quin EK, Marshall NJ and Carleton KL. 2010. The relationship between lens transmission and opsin gene expression in cichlids from Lake Malawi. Vision Research 50: 357-63.
- Hofmann CM, O'Quin KE, Marshall NJ, Cronin TW, Seehausen O, and Carleton KL. 2009. The eyes have it: Regulatory and structural changes both underlie cichlid visual pigment diversity. PLOS Biology 7(12) e1000266.
- Seehausen O, Terai Y, Magalhaes, IS, Carleton KL, Mrosso HDJ, Miyagi R, van der Sluijs I, Schneider MV, Maan ME, Tachida H, Imai H and Okada N. 2008. Speciation through sensory drive in cichlid fish. Nature 455:620-6.
Education
B.S. Chemical Engineering, Yale University 1980
Ph.D. Physical Chemistry, University of Colorado, 1987.
Miller Post-doctoral fellow, University of California, Berkeley, 1987-89.
