David L. Remington

BS: University of Montana, 1976 PhD: North Carolina State University, 1999 Postdoctoral: North Carolina State University. I conduct research on the genetics of life history evolution in plants. The genes responsible for evolution of complex patterns of growth form and resource allocation have key roles in shaping how plants respond to new environments such as those brought about by changing climates. However, these processes have received much less study than those regulating other important adaptive traits such as flowering time. We have been using the rock cress Arabidopsis lyrata as an experimental organism for this research. We have discovered that A lyrata is highly variable in resource allocation properties, and its extensive genomic resources make it uniquely valuable for studying these traits. Mapping of genes affecting variation in complex traits (quantitative trait loci, or QTLs) has provided insights on genetic co-regulation of resource allocation traits and their relationship to fitness in different environments. We have been making and testing models of trait networks in order to gain insights on the cause-effect mechanisms by which QTLs coordinately regulate developmental processes, and thus give rise to correlated patterns of variation in multiple traits. I am interested in providing research opportunities for undergraduates and graduate students who combine mathematical aptitude with curiosity about how genetic variation shapes complex sets of traits.

There are 26 included publications by David L. Remington :

TitleDateViewsBrief Description
Alleles versus mutations: Understanding the evolution of genetic architecture requires a molecular perspective on allelic origins 2015 2101 Perspectives on the role of large-effect quantitative trait loci (QTL) in the evolution of complex traits have shifted back and forth over the past few decades. Different sets of studies have produced contradictory insights on the evolution of geneti...
Average effect of a mutation in lignin biosynthesis in loblolly pine 1999 270 Cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase (CAD, E.C. 1.1.1.195) is a monolignol biosynthetic enzyme that catalyzes the final step of lignin subunit biosynthesis in higher plants. Recently, a mutant allele of the cad gene, cad-n1, encoding for the CAD enzyme, wa...
Candidate genes, quantitative trait loci, and functional trait evolution in plants 2003 1334 Two key characteristics of the neo-Darwinian synthesis in evolutionary biology have been its emphasis on the importance of mutations of small effect (micromutationism) and the view that studies of individual gene function shed relatively little light...
Characters as Groups: A New Approach to Morphological Characters in Phylogenetic Analysis 2007 4108 A new method for working with morphological characters is described and explored in experiments using human participants. The method uses direct comparison and sorting of images to produce hierarchical character-cladograms. A character-cladogram is a...
Complex Data Produce Better Characters 2004 2643 Abstract: Two studies were conducted to explore the use of complex data in character description and hybrid identification. In order to determine if complex data allow the production of better characters, eight groups of plant systematists were given...
Construction of an AFLP genetic map with nearly complete genome coverage in Pinus taeda 1999 1326 De novo construction of complete genetic linkage maps requires large mapping populations, large numbers of genetic markers, and efficient algorithms for ordering markers and evaluating order confidence. We constructed a complete genetic map of an ind...
Contrasting modes of diversification in the Aux/IAA and ARF gene families 2004 1129 The complete genomic sequence for Arabidopsis provides the opportunity to combine phylogenetic and genomic approaches to study the evolution of gene families in plants. The Aux/IAA and ARF gene families, consisting of 29 and 23 loci in Arabidopsis, r...
Detection of the Dinozoans Pfiesteria piscicida and P. shumwayae: A Review of Detection Methods and Geographic Distribution 2005 2004 Molecular methods, including conventional PCR, real-time PCR, denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis, fluorescent fragment detection PCR, and fluorescent in situ hybridization, have all been developed for use in identifying and studying the distribu...
Effects of Causal Networks on the Structure and Stability of Resource Allocation Trait Correlations 2012 1875 Discovering the mechanisms by which genetic variation influences phenotypes is integral to understanding life-history evolution. Models describing causal relationships among traits in a developmental hierarchy provide a functional basis for understan...
Evaluation of major genetic loci contributing to inbreeding depression for survival and early growth in a selfed family of Pinus taeda 2000 1147 The magnitude of fitness effects at genetic loci causing inbreeding depression at various life stages has been an important question in plant evolution. We used genetic mapping in a selfed family of loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) to gain insights on ...
Evolutionary pattern in the antR-cor gene in the dwarf dogwood complex (Cornus, Cornaceae) 2007 267 The evolutionary pattern of the myc-like anthocyanin regulatory gene antR-Cor was examined in the dwarf dogwood species complex (Cornus Subgenus Arctocrania) that contains two diploid species (C. canadensis and C. suecica), their putative hybrids wit...
GAI homologues in the Hawaiian silversword alliance (Asteraceae-Madiinae): molecular evolution of growth regulators in a rapidly diversifying plant lineage 2002 1076 Accelerated evolution of regulatory genes has been proposed as an explanation for decoupled rates of morphological and molecular evolution. The Hawaiian silversword alliance (Asteraceae-Madiinae) has evolved drastic differences in growth form, includ...
Game theoretic model of brood parasitism in a dung beetle Onthophagus Taurus 2009 2123 We present a game theoretic model of brood parasitism in the dung beetle Onthophagus taurus. Female O. taurus engage in brood parasitism when they attack a brood ball made by another female, destroy the existing egg and place one of their own eggs to...
Genetic Basis of Local Adaptation and Flowering Time Variation in Arabidopsis lyrata 2013 2056 Understanding how genetic variation at individual loci contributes to adaptation of populations to different local environments is an important topic in modern evolutionary biology. To date, most evidence has pointed to conditionally neutral quantita...
A genetic map of maritime pine based on AFLP, RAPD and protein markers 2000 492 The AFLP (amplified fragment length polymorphism) technique was adapted to carry out genetic analysis in maritime pine, a species characterized by a large genome size (24 pg/C). A genetic linkage map was constructed for one F1 individual based on 239...
High-throughput AFLP analysis using infrared dye-labeled primers and an automated DNA sequencer 2001 294 Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) analysis is currently the most powerful and efficient technique for the generation of large numbers of anonymous DNA markers in plant and animal genomes. We have developed a protocol for high-throughput A...
Improved AFLP analysis of tree species 2000 282 Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) is a high-throughput, molecular-marker technique that is used increasingly in a variety of genetic analyses. Here, the conditions for carrying out AFLP analysis have been established for different tree sp...
Influences of gene flow on adaptive speciation in the Dubautia arborea – D. ciliolata complex 2007 577 Mechanisms of reproductive isolation during plant speciation are often unclear because distinct species often experience high levels of gene flow and hybridization. Adaptive radiations such as the Hawaiian silversword alliance (HSA) provide unique op...
Local adaptation, phenotypic differentiation and hybrid fitness in diverged natural populations of Arabidopsis lyrata 2011 1524 Selection for local adaptation results in genetic differentiation in ecologically important traits. In a perennial, outcrossing model plant Arabidopsis lyrata, several differentiated phenotypic traits contribute to local adaptation, as demonstrated b...
Natural selection contributes to geographic patterns of thermal plasticity in Plantago lanceolate 2019 421 2018-2019 UNCG University Libraries Open Access Publishing Fund Grant Winner.

A long-standing debate in evolutionary biology concerns the relative importance of different evolutionary forces in explaining phenotypic diversification at large ge...
On Deterministic and Stochastic Models of Kleptoparasitism 2009 1829 Kleptoparasitism, the stealing of food items, is a common biological phenomenon that has been studied mostly with the help of deterministic dynamics for infinite populations. The infinite population assumption takes the models far from the biological...
Partitioning adaptive differentiation across a patchy landscape: shade avoidance traits in Impatiens capensis 2008 1358 Adaptation to different habitat types across a patchy landscape may either arise independently in each patch or occur due to repeated colonization of each patch by the same specialized genotype. We tested whether open- and closed-canopy forms of Impa...
Paths to Selection on Life History Loci in Different Natural Environments Across the Native Range of Arabidopsis thaliana 2013 1584 Selection on quantitative trait loci (QTL) may vary among natural environments due to differences in the genetic architecture of traits, environment-specific allelic effects or changes in the direction and magnitude of selection on specific traits. T...
Structure of linkage disequilibrium and phenotypic associations in the maize genome 2001 1146 Association studies based on linkage disequilibrium (LD) can provide high resolution for identifying genes that may contribute to phenotypic variation. We report patterns of local and genome-wide LD in 102 maize inbred lines representing much of the ...
Taxonomy of Pfiesteria (Dinophyceae) 2006 3596 The dinoflagellate species originally described as Pfiesteria shumwayae Glasgow et Burkholder, recently transferred to a new genus, Pseudopfiesteria Litaker et al., is reclassified into the redefined genus Pfiesteria Steidinger et Burkholder, as Pfie...
Timing of shoot development transitions affects degree of perenniality in Arabidopsis lyrata (Brassicaceae) 2015 1796 BackgroundPerenniality is best understood in quantitative terms, involving the relationship betweenproduction vs. turnover of meristems, biomass, or energy reserves. Previous quantitative traitlocus (QTL) studies using divergent populations of the pe...