A group of young women in lab coats on McKeldin Mall

Robert Fleischer holding a little green bird in his hand
Contact Info
Phone: 202.633.4190
Fax: 202.673.0040
Address: National Zoological Park, Smithsonian Institution, 3001 Connecticut Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20008-0551
Website
Robert Fleischer
Adjunct Professor
Senior Scientist and Center Head, Center for Conservation Genomics, National Zoo

Graduate Program Affiliation

  • BISI-Behavior, Ecology, Evolution, & Systematics (BEES)

Research Interests

My primary research interests are in the evolutionary and conservation biology of birds and mammals, including studies of the genetic aspects of interactions of pathogens with their vectors and hosts, phylogeography and systematics, and the application of molecular markers to studies of kinship and behavior.

Education

Ph.D., University of Kansas, 1983, Evolutionary genetics
B.A., University of California, Santa Barbara, 1978, Biology

All Publications

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Latest Publications via PubMed

Armstrong EE,Carey SB,Harkess A,Zenato Lazzari G,Solari KA,Maldonado JE,Fleischer RC,Aziz N,Walsh P,Koepfli KP,Eizirik E,Petrov DA,Campana MG
Parameterizing Pantherinae: De Novo Mutation Rate Estimates from Panthera and Neofelis Pedigrees.
Genome Biol Evol. 2025 Apr 3;17(4):. doi: 10.1093/gbe/evaf060. Epub
Miller ET,Wood AW,Baiz M,Welch AJ,Fleischer RC,Dale AS,Toews DPL
Reassessing niche partitioning in MacArthur's warblers: foraging behaviour, morphology and diet differentiation in a phylogenetic context.
Biol Lett. 2025 Apr;21(4):20250001. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2025.0001. Epub 2025 Apr 16
Kearns AM,Campana MG,Slikas B,Berry L,Saitoh T,Graves GR,Cibois A,Fleischer RC
Untangling the colonization history of the Australo-Pacific reed warblers, one of the world's great island radiations.
Evolution. 2024 Dec 2;78(12):1900-1915. doi: 10.1093/evolut/qpae136. Epub
Costantini MS,Videvall E,Foster JT,Medeiros MCI,Gillece JD,Paxton EH,Crampton LH,Mounce HL,Wang AX,Fleischer RC,Campana MG,Reed FA
The Role of Geography, Diet, and Host Phylogeny on the Gut Microbiome in the Hawaiian Honeycreeper Radiation.
Ecol Evol. 2024 Oct;14(10):e70372. doi: 10.1002/ece3.70372. Epub 2024 Oct 16
Byerly PA,Kearns AM,Welch A,Ochirbat ME,Marra PP,Wilson A,Campana MG,Fleischer RC
Museum genomics provide insight into the extinction of a specialist North American warbler species.
Sci Rep. 2024 Jul 24;14(1):17047. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-67595-5. Epub 2024 Jul 24
Blanchet G,Bellinger MR,Kearns AM,Cortes-Rodriguez N,Masuda B,Campana MG,Rutz C,Fleischer RC,Sutton JT
Reduction of genetic diversity in 'Alalā (Hawaiian crow; Corvus hawaiiensis) between the late 1800s and the late 1900s.
J Hered. 2024 Feb 3;115(1):32-44. doi: 10.1093/jhered/esad063. Epub
Mulder KP,Savage AE,Gratwicke B,Longcore JE,Bronikowski E,Evans M,Longo AV,Kurata NP,Walsh T,Pasmans F,McInerney N,Murray S,Martel A,Fleischer RC
Sequence capture identifies fastidious chytrid fungi directly from host tissue.
Fungal Genet Biol. 2024 Feb;170:103858. doi: 10.1016/j.fgb.2023.103858. Epub 2023 Dec 13
Seidl CM,Ferreira FC,Parise KL,Paxton KL,Paxton EH,Atkinson CT,Fleischer RC,Foster JT,Marm Kilpatrick A
Linking avian malaria parasitemia estimates from quantitative PCR and microscopy reveals new infection patterns in Hawai'i.
Int J Parasitol. 2024 Feb;54(2):123-130. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpara.2023.10.001. Epub 2023 Nov 3
Navine AK,Paxton KL,Paxton EH,Hart PJ,Foster JT,McInerney N,Fleischer RC,Videvall E
Microbiomes associated with avian malaria survival differ between susceptible Hawaiian honeycreepers and sympatric malaria-resistant introduced birds.
Mol Ecol. 2023 Dec;32(23):6659-6670. doi: 10.1111/mec.16743. Epub 2022 Nov 10
Paxton KL,Cassin-Sackett L,Atkinson CT,Videvall E,Campana MG,Fleischer RC
Gene expression reveals immune response strategies of naïve Hawaiian honeycreepers experimentally infected with introduced avian malaria.
J Hered. 2023 Jun 22;114(4):326-340. doi: 10.1093/jhered/esad017. Epub
Kaganer AW,Ossiboff RJ,Keith NI,Schuler KL,Comizzoli P,Hare MP,Fleischer RC,Gratwicke B,Bunting EM
Immune priming prior to pathogen exposure sheds light on the relationship between host, microbiome and pathogen in disease.
R Soc Open Sci. 2023 Feb;10(2):220810. doi: 10.1098/rsos.220810. Epub 2023 Feb 1
Byerly PA,Chesser RT,Fleischer RC,McInerney N,Przelomska NAS,Leberg PL
Museum Genomics Provide Evidence for Persistent Genetic Differentiation in a Threatened Seabird Species in the Western Atlantic.
Integr Comp Biol. 2022 Dec 30;62(6):1838-1848. doi: 10.1093/icb/icac107. Epub
Fleischer RC,Campana MG,James HF
Hawaiian songbird radiations.
Curr Biol. 2022 Oct 24;32(20):R1070-R1072. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.08.057. Epub
Ferreira FC,Videvall E,Seidl CM,Wagner NE,Kilpatrick AM,Fleischer RC,Fonseca DM
Transcriptional response of individual Hawaiian Culex quinquefasciatus mosquitoes to the avian malaria parasite Plasmodium relictum.
Malar J. 2022 Aug 29;21(1):249. doi: 10.1186/s12936-022-04271-x. Epub 2022 Aug 29
Parker LD,Campana MG,Quinta JD,Cypher B,Rivera I,Fleischer RC,Ralls K,Wilbert TR,Boarman R,Boarman WI,Maldonado JE
An efficient method for simultaneous species, individual, and sex identification via in-solution single nucleotide polymorphism capture from low-quality scat samples.
Mol Ecol Resour. 2022 May;22(4):1345-1361. doi: 10.1111/1755-0998.13552. Epub 2021 Nov 25
Kearns AM,Campana MG,Slikas B,Berry L,Saitoh T,Cibois A,Fleischer RC
Conservation genomics and systematics of a near-extinct island radiation.
Mol Ecol. 2022 Apr;31(7):1995-2012. doi: 10.1111/mec.16382. Epub 2022 Feb 16
Mulder KP,Alarcón-Ríos L,Nicieza AG,Fleischer RC,Bell RC,Velo-Antón G
Independent evolutionary transitions to pueriparity across multiple timescales in the viviparous genus Salamandra.
Mol Phylogenet Evol. 2022 Feb;167:107347. doi: 10.1016/j.ympev.2021.107347. Epub 2021 Nov 8
Becker MH,Brophy JAN,Barrett K,Bronikowski E,Evans M,Glassey E,Kaganer AW,Klocke B,Lassiter E,Meyer AJ,Muletz-Wolz CR,Fleischer RC,Voigt CA,Gratwicke B
Genetically modifying skin microbe to produce violacein and augmenting microbiome did not defend Panamanian golden frogs from disease.
ISME Commun. 2021 Oct 18;1(1):57. doi: 10.1038/s43705-021-00044-w. Epub 2021 Oct 18
Venkatraman M,Fleischer RC,Tsuchiya MTN
Comparative Analysis of Annotation Pipelines Using the First Japanese White-Eye (Zosterops japonicus) Genome.
Genome Biol Evol. 2021 May 7;13(5):. doi: 10.1093/gbe/evab063. Epub
Videvall E,Paxton KL,Campana MG,Cassin-Sackett L,Atkinson CT,Fleischer RC
Transcriptome assembly and differential gene expression of the invasive avian malaria parasite Plasmodium relictum in Hawai'i.
Ecol Evol. 2021 May;11(9):4935-4944. doi: 10.1002/ece3.7401. Epub 2021 Mar 27

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