Ph.D., Brown University, 1999
evolutionary ecology, ecological and evolutionary genetics
As a research group, we are broadly interested in the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of populations that experience environmental heterogeneity over various spatial and temporal scales. We seek to understand mechanistically how natural selection works in heterogeneous environments, the context dependency and many constraints on this process, and how this ultimately produces an adaptive response. Our research combines extensive sampling of natural populations and –omics level characterizations, laboratory-based classical and molecular genetics, and experimentation conducted in both the field and laboratory. Much of our work is centered on testing the functional significance of identified molecular polymorphism: establishing concrete links between allelic variation, physiologically mediated performance, and the differential fitness of genotypes among environments.
For information about current research in my laboratory, please see our lab webpage.
BIOL 2410 - Evolutionary Biology
BIOL 3851 - Biology and Society
Rudman, S.M., S.I. Greenblum, S. Rajpurohit, N.J. Betancourt, J. Hanna, S. Tilk, T. Yokoyama, D.A. Petrov and P. Schmidt. 2022. Direct observation of adaptive tracking on ecological timescales in Drosophila. Science 375 (6586): 1246 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abj7484. Commentary: Hoffmann, A.A. and T. Flatt. 2022. The rapid tempo of adaptation. Science 375 (6586): 1226. DOI: 10.1126/science.abo1817
Machado, H., A.O. Bergland, R. Taylor, S. Tilk, E. Behrman, K. Dyer, D.K. Fabian, T. Flatt, J. Gonzalez, T.L. Karasov, I. Koretska, B.P. Lazzaro, T.J. Merritt, J.E. Pool, K. O'Brien, S. Rajpurohit, P.R. Roy, S.W. Schaeffer, S. Serga, P. Schmidt and D. Petrov. 2021. Broad geographic sampling reveals the shared basis and environmental correlates of seasonal adaptation in Drosophila. eLife. 10:e67577 DOI: 10.7554/eLife.67577
Grainger, T.N., S.R. Rudman, P. Schmidt and J.M. Levine. 2021. Competitive history shapes rapid evolution in a seasonal climate. PNAS. 118 (6) e2015772118; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2015772118
Betancourt, N., Rajpurohit, S., E. Durmaz, M. Kapun, T. Flatt and P. Schmidt. 2021. Allelic polymorphism at foxo contributes to adaptive patterns of life history differentiation in natural populations of Drosophila melanogaster. Molecular Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.15939
Rudman, S.M., S. Greenblum, R. Hughes, S. Rajpurohit, O. Kiratli, D. Lowder, S. Lemmon, D. A. Petrov, J. M. Chaston, and P. Schmidt. 2019. Microbiome composition shapes rapid genomic adaptation of Drosophila melanogaster. PNAS 116 (40) 20025-20032. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1907787116
Rajpurohit, S., E. Gefen, A.O. Bergland, D.A. Petrov, A.G. Gibbs and P.S. Schmidt. 2018. Spatiotemporal patterns of desiccation tolerance in natural populations Drosophila melanogaster. Molecular Ecology 27:3525-40. https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.14814
Behrman, E.L., V. Howick, A.O. Bergland, F. Staubach, D.A. Petrov, B. Lazzaro and P.S. Schmidt. 2018. Rapid seasonal evolution in innate immunity of wild Drosophila melanogaster. Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. Ser. B. 285: 20172599. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2017.2599.