Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Earth & Marine Sciences A308
Phone: 831.459.5358
Fax: 831.459.5353
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GRANT POGSON Associate Professor of EEBiology B.S., Carleton University Ph.D. University of British Columbia

Earth & Marine Sciences A308 University of California Santa Cruz, CA 95064 phone 831.459.5122 fax 831.459.5353 pogson@biology.ucsc.edu office hours

Molecular Population Genetics, Ecological Genetics

Our laboratory is interested in understanding the processes that affect the levels and patterns of genetic variation in natural populations. We are particularly interested in developing techniques for measuring genetic variability at the DNA level and in using the insights provided by DNA polymorphism to make inferences about the operation of selection in populations of marine bivalve and fish species. In trivalves, our main research activities have been directed towards understanding the genetic basis of correlations between the degree of individual heterozygosity (measured at a number of polymorphic enzyme loci) and various fitness-related characters (such as growth, viability and fecundity). Recently, we have developed a set of 22 nuclear restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) in the scallop, Placopecten magellanicus and scored a subset of these loci in a cohort of juveniles that were previously known to exhibit a correlation between enzyme heterozygosity and growth rate. By demonstrating that growth rate failed to correlate with the degree of heterozygosity at the DNA level, we have obtained evidence favoring the direct involvement of a number of polymorphic enzyme loci to a fitness-related character.

We are also investigating the evolutionary dynamics of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) polymorphism in a number of bivalve species. In the scallop, we have examined whether large-scale mtDNA size variation has an effect on fitness by comparing growth rates of individuals possessing different numbers of a large (1.45 kb) mtDNA repeated sequence. In mussels of the genus Mytilus, we are interested in the evolution of biparental inheritance of mtDNA.

Our work on the Atlantic cod, Gadus morhua, has included (i) examining the genetic basis of variation in physiological performance among individuals from different stocks, and (ii) measuring the extent of population structure and gene flow through a combined analysis of variation at electrophoretic, mtDNA and nuclear RFLP loci.

Selected Publications

Pogson, G.H. and Fevolden, S.E. 2003. Natural selection and the genetic differentiation of coastal and Arctic populations of the Atlantic cod in northern Norway: a test involving nucleotide sequence variation at the pantophysin (Pan 1) locus. Molecular Ecology 12:63-74.

Pogson, G.H. 2001. Nucleotidi polymorphism and natural selection at the pantophysin (Pan I) locus in the Atlantic cod, Gadus morhua (l.). Genetics 157:317-330.

Pogson, G.H., Taggart, C.T., Mesa, K.A. and Boutilier, R.G. 2001. Isolation by distance in the Atlantic cod, Gadus morhua, at large and small geographic scales. Evolution 55: 131-146.

Pearse, D.E. and Pogson, G.H. 2000. Parallel evolution of the melanic form of the California legless lizard. Anniella pulchra, inferred from mitrochondrial DNA sequence variation. Evolution 54: 1041-1046.

Pogson, G.H. and Fevolden, S.E. 1998. DNA Heterozygosity and growth rate in the Atlantic cod, Gadhus morhua (L.) Evolution 52: 915-920.

Fevolden, S.E., and Pogson, G.H. 1997. Genetic divergence at the synaptophysin (Syp I) locus among Norwegian coastal and northeast arctic populations of Atlantic cod, Gadus morhua. J. Fish Biol. 51: 895-908.

Boutilier, R.G., West, T.G., Pogson, G.H., Mesa, K.A., Wells, J., and Wells, M.J. 1996. Nautilus and the art of metabolic maintenance. Nature 382:534-536.

Pogson, G.H., Mesa, K.A., and Boutilier, R.G. 1995. Genetic population structure and gene flow in the Atlantic cod, Gadus morhua: A comparison of allozyme and nuclear RFLP loci. Genetics 139:375-385.

Pogson, G.H. and Zouros, E. 1994. Allozyme and RFLP heterozygosities as correlates of growth rate in the scallop, Placopecten magellanicus: a test of the associative overdominance hypothesis. Genetics. 137:221-231.

Zouros, E., Freeman, K.R., Ball, A.O. and Pogson, G.H. 1992. Direct evidence for extensive paternal mitochondrial DNA inheritance in the marine mussel, Mytilus. Nature 359:412-414.