Thomas Kocher headshot
Contact Info
Office Phone: 301.405.4496
Lab Phone: 301.405.6242
Fax: 301.314.9358
Office Address: 2132 Bioscience Research Bldg
Thomas Kocher
Professor

Teaching

  • BSCI 222: Principles of Genetics (Fall semesters)
  • BIOL338K: Genetic Research on Cichlid Fishes
  • BIOL708J: Genomic Approaches in Ecology and Evolution (not currently taught)

Graduate Program Affiliation

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

Research Interests

More than 700 species of cichlid fishes have arisen within Lake Malawi within the last million years. We want to understand the evolutionary forces which have caused this rapid speciation. We are mapping genes for phenotypic traits associated with speciation, such as jaw morphology, color pattern, sex determination and mate preferences. Our ultimate goal is to identify the genes responsible for speciation of these fishes, and to study the geographic distribution of allelic variants among populations in the wild.


Education

B.A., Yale University, 1981
Ph.D., University of Colorado, 1986


All Publications

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Latest Publications via PubMed

Kocher TD,Meisel RP,Gamble T,Behrens KA,Gammerdinger WJ
Trends Genet. 2024 Dec;40(12):1001-1017. doi: 10.1016/j.tig.2024.10.003. Epub 2024 Nov 5
Kumar NM,Cooper TL,Kocher TD,Streelman JT,McGrath PT
bioRxiv. 2024 Oct 29;:. pii: 2024.10.28.620687. doi: 10.1101/2024.10.28.620687. Epub 2024 Oct 29
Wang J,Tao W,Kocher TD,Wang D
J Genet Genomics. 2024 Sep 2;:. pii: S1673-8527(24)00222-4. doi: 10.1016/j.jgg.2024.08.008. Epub 2024 Sep 2
Behrens KA,Koblmüller S,Kocher TD
Front Genet. 2024;15:1447628. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2024.1447628. Epub 2024 Aug 16
Behrens KA,Koblmueller S,Kocher TD
Genome Biol Evol. 2024 Jul 3;16(7):. doi: 10.1093/gbe/evae152. Epub
Xu J,Li P,Xu M,Wang C,Kocher TD,Wang D
J Hered. 2024 Jul 1;:. pii: esae034. doi: 10.1093/jhered/esae034. Epub 2024 Jul 1
Qi S,Dai S,Zhou X,Wei X,Chen P,He Y,Kocher TD,Wang D,Li M
PLoS Genet. 2024 Mar;20(3):e1011210. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1011210. Epub 2024 Mar 27
Yu M,Zhang S,Ma Z,Qiang J,Wei J,Sun L,Kocher TD,Wang D,Tao W
Int J Biol Macromol. 2024 Mar;260(Pt 2):129632. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2024.129632. Epub 2024 Jan 20
Behrens KA,Zimmermann H,Blažek R,Reichard M,Koblmüller S,Kocher TD
Sci Rep. 2024 Jan 30;14(1):2471. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-53021-3. Epub 2024 Jan 30
Zheng S,Tao W,Yang H,Kocher TD,Wang Z,Peng Z,Jin L,Pu D,Zhang Y,Wang D
Proc Biol Sci. 2023 Jan 11;290(1990):20222381. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2022.2381. Epub 2023 Jan 4
Behrens KA,Koblmüller S,Kocher TD
Sci Rep. 2022 Oct 26;12(1):17998. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-23017-y. Epub 2022 Oct 26
Wang C,Xu J,Kocher TD,Li M,Wang D
J Hered. 2022 Jul 23;113(4):398-413. doi: 10.1093/jhered/esac018. Epub
Triay C,Courcelle M,Caminade P,Bezault E,Baroiller JF,Kocher TD,D'Cotta H
Front Genet. 2022;13:820772. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2022.820772. Epub 2022 May 17
Kocher TD,Behrens KA,Conte MA,Aibara M,Mrosso HDJ,Green ECJ,Kidd MR,Nikaido M,Koblmüller S
Genes (Basel). 2022 Apr 30;13(5):. doi: 10.3390/genes13050804. Epub 2022 Apr 30
Zheng S,Tao W,Yang H,Kocher TD,Wang Z,Peng Z,Jin L,Pu D,Zhang Y,Wang D
Proc Biol Sci. 2022 Mar 30;289(1971):20212645. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2021.2645. Epub 2022 Mar 16
Tao W,Cao J,Xiao H,Zhu X,Dong J,Kocher TD,Lu M,Wang D
Front Genet. 2021;12:796211. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2021.796211. Epub 2021 Dec 8
Wang C,Lu B,Li T,Liang G,Xu M,Liu X,Tao W,Zhou L,Kocher TD,Wang D
J Hered. 2021 Aug 25;112(5):469-484. doi: 10.1093/jhered/esab018. Epub
Zheng S,Shao F,Tao W,Liu Z,Long J,Wang X,Zhang S,Zhao Q,Carleton KL,Kocher TD,Jin L,Wang Z,Peng Z,Wang D,Zhang Y
Mol Ecol Resour. 2021 Jul;21(5):1575-1592. doi: 10.1111/1755-0998.13338. Epub 2021 May 12
Zhang S,Xie L,Zheng S,Lu B,Tao W,Wang X,Kocher TD,Zhou L,Wang D
Int J Mol Sci. 2021 Apr 18;22(8):. doi: 10.3390/ijms22084201. Epub 2021 Apr 18
Conte MA,Clark FE,Roberts RB,Xu L,Tao W,Zhou Q,Wang D,Kocher TD
Mol Biol Evol. 2021 Apr 13;38(4):1554-1569. doi: 10.1093/molbev/msaa319. Epub