Sean Carroll

Balo-Simon Professor
Andrew and Mary Balo and Nicholas and Susan Simon Endowed Chair
And Vice President for Science Education, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Contact
Email: sbcarrol@umd.edu, carrolls@hhmi.org
Office Phone: 301.405.1952
Lab: 2229 Bioscience Research Building
Office Address: 2101 Bioscience Research Building
URL:
Research Interests
The origin of novelty is one of the central questions of evolution. We seek to understand, in general, the relative contributions of different mechanisms – gene co-option, gene duplication and loss, regulatory and protein sequence changes – to the evolution of different kinds of traits. Our research has focused on the evolution of morphological traits in animals, and more recently, on biochemical novelties such as the evolution of snake venom.
Recent Publications
Andrew and Mary Balo and Nicholas and Susan Simon Endowed Chair
And Vice President for Science Education, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Contact
Email: sbcarrol@umd.edu, carrolls@hhmi.org
Office Phone: 301.405.1952
Lab: 2229 Bioscience Research Building
Office Address: 2101 Bioscience Research Building
URL:
Research Interests
The origin of novelty is one of the central questions of evolution. We seek to understand, in general, the relative contributions of different mechanisms – gene co-option, gene duplication and loss, regulatory and protein sequence changes – to the evolution of different kinds of traits. Our research has focused on the evolution of morphological traits in animals, and more recently, on biochemical novelties such as the evolution of snake venom.
Recent Publications
- Dowell, N.L., Giorgianni,M.W., Griffin,S., Kassner,V.A., Selegue,J.E., Sanchez,E.E., and Carroll,S.B. (2018) Extremely divergent haplotypes in two toxin gene complexes encode alternative venom types within rattlesnake species. Current Biology,28:1016-1026..
- Loehlin, D.W., and Carroll, S.B. (2016) Expression of tandem gene duplicates is often greater than twofold. PNAS 113:5988-5992.
- Dowell, N.L. , Giorgianni, M.G., Kassner, V.A., Selegue, J.E., Sanchez, E.E., and Carroll, S.B. (2016) The deep origin and recent loss of venom toxin genes in rattlesnakes. Current Biology,26:2434-2445.
- Carroll, S.B. (2016) The Serengeti Rules: The quest to discover how life works and why it matters. Princeton University Press.
- Koshikawa, S., Giorgianni, M.W., Vaccaro, K., Kassner, V.A., Yoder, J.H., Werner, T., Carroll, S.B. (2015) Gain of cis-regulatory activities underlies novel domains of wingless gene expression in Drosophila. PNAS 112: 7524-9.
- Chung, H., Loehlin, D.A., Dufour, H., Vaccaro,K., Millar, J., and Carroll, S.B. (2014) A single gene affects both ecological divergence and mate choice in Drosophila. Science 343: 1148-1151.
- Werner, T., Koshikawa, S., Williams, T.M., and Carroll, S.B. (2010) Generation and evolution of a complex wing pattern controlled by the Wingless morphogen. Nature 464:1143-1148.
- Rebeiz, M., Pool, J.E., Kassner, V.A., Aquadro, C.F., and Carroll, S.B. (2009) Stepwise modification of a modular enhancer underlies adaptation in a Drosophila population. SCIENCE 326:1663-1667
- Carroll, S.B. (2008) Evo Devo and an Expanding Evolutionary Synthesis: A Genetic Theory of Morphological Evolution. Cell 134: 25-36.