Alan Templeton’s Activities in Population Biology

My research falls into three seemingly different but actually overlapping categories:

1.   Studying the basic evolutionary processes that have lead to the current biodiversity found on this planet, such as:

1. The origin of adaptations, particularly from a perspective that integrates molecular genetics, developmental biology, and ecology.
2. The origin and meaning of species
3. The evolution of humanity, particularly over the last two million years when anatomically modern humans evolved.
    

2.   Using the principles of population and evolutionary biology to sustain, maintain, and restore our legacy of biodiversity at the level of:

1. Genetic diversity within populations
2. Individual species
3. Communities of species
4. Entire landscapes
    

3.   Apply the tools of population and evolutionary biology to issues in human health and well being, including:

1. The genetic contribution of common but complex diseases in humans
2. The evolution of HIV and the development of AIDS
    

Research Description

Although basic evolutionary biology, conservation biology, and genetic epidemiology seem quite disparate, these areas are actually integrated in my research.  For example, I developed an analytical tool called nested clade analysis in order to study genetic associations of branches of evolutionary trees of haplotypes at a candidate gene with cholesterol levels in humans as part of my research on coronary artery disease.  I then realized that this technique could also be used to study associations of evolutionary trees of haplotypes with many other types of data, including geographical data.  By studying haplotype tree/geography associations, the evolutionary history of a species can be reconstructed along with a quantitative statistical assessment of that reconstruction.  This nested clade approach has now become one of the standard approaches in the area of intraspecific phylogeography, and has been used by me and by many others to study basic problems in evolutionary biology, and particularly the evolutionary history of anatomically modern humans, where it is revolutionizing our concepts about recent human evolution.  Moreover, I could combine this nested clade approach with my earlier work on the meaning of species to come up with a novel and explicit method for recognizing new species and inferring the processes that were important in their origin.  This phylogeographic analysis can also be applied to endangered species in order to design more effective conservation programs, and can be applied to multiple species from the same community or landscape to shape conservation policy at these levels.  Thus, I am using studies on haplotype trees in all three of my major research areas, and progress in any one area immediately impacts progress in the other areas.

A second example of the integrated nature of my research is my long-term interest in epistasis –– interactions between genes to determine a trait.  My first work on epistasis involved its role in adaptation, but I soon extended these studies to include the role of epistasis in the process of speciation.  Later, I was asked to design a breeding program for an endangered Gazelle population, and realized that epistasis –– a phenomenon completely ignored in the conservation literature at that point –– would be critical.  Using my earlier work on the basic evolutionary impact of epistasis, I designed a novel breeding program that brought this endangered population back to genetic health.  Finally, I find epistasis contributing to complex human diseases, such as coronary artery disease.  One of my major current research efforts is in developing new analytical tools to study epistasis in complex diseases and to show how epistasis can be used in making the transition from population associations to individual treatments.   Thus, my interest in epistasis transcends and integrates all three of my major research areas.

Finally, I am interested in the ethical and social implications of modern genetics.  Science and society are interacting, not separate, entities.  Instead of avoiding the ethical and social implications of my research, I have actively folded the ethical and social consequences of my research on human evolution, race and genetic epidemiology into my research and my teaching, particularly to lay audiences.  With regard to the later, I have given frequent interviews to newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations across the globe on such topics as race and racism, genes and disease, and AIDS.

Selected Publications Reflecting my Recent Activities in Population Biology

1. Basic evolutionary processes

1. Brisson, J. A., A. R. Templeton, and I. Duncan.  Population Genetics of the Developmental Gene optomotor-blind (omb) in Drosophila polymorpha: Evidence for a Role in Abdominal Pigmentation Variation. Genetics 168:1999-2010, 2004.

2. Templeton, A. R.  Statistical phylogeography: methods of evaluating and minimizing inference errors. Molecular Ecology 13:789-809,2004.

3. Templeton, A. R. Out of Africa again and again. Nature 416: 45 - 51, 2002.

2. Conservation Biology

1. Templeton, A. R., R. J. Robertson, J. Brisson and J. Strasburg. Disrupting evolutionary processes: The effect of habitat fragmentation on collared lizards in the Missouri Ozarks. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 98(10): 5426-5432, 2001. (pdf)

2. Templeton, A.R.  The Speke's Gazelle Breeding Program as an Illustration of the Importance of Multilocus Genetic Diversity in Conservation Biology: Response to Kalinowski et al.   Conservation Biology 16: 1151-1155, 2002.

3. Templeton, A. R. Using Haplotype Trees for Phylogeographic and Species Inference in Fish Populations. Environmental Biology of Fishes 69:7-20, 2004.

4. Brisson, J. A., J. L. Strasburg, and A. R. Templeton. Impact of fire management on the ecology of collared lizard (Crotaphytus collaris) populations living on the Ozark Plateau. Animal Conservation 6:247-254, 2003.

3. Genetic epidemiology

1. Templeton, A. R., T. Maxwell, D. Posada, J. H. Stengard, E. Boerwinkle, and C. F. Sing. Tree Scanning: A Method for Using Haplotype Trees in Phenotype/Genotype Association Studies. Genetics 169:441-453, 2005.

2. Templeton, A. R., R. A. Reichert, A. E. Weisstein, X. F. Yu, and R. B. Markham. Selection in context: patterns of natural selection in the glycoprotein 120 region of human immunodeficiency virus 1 within infected individuals. Genetics 167:1547-1561, 2004.

4. Ethical and Social Implications of Modern Genetics

1. Templeton, A. R. Human races in the context of recent human evolution: a molecular genetic perspective. In: Genetic Nature/Culture. A. H. Goodman, D. Heath and M. S. Lindee, eds. Pp. 234-257. University of California Press, Berkeley, 2003.

2. Condit, C., A. R. Templeton, B. R. Bates, J. L. Bevan, and T. M. Harris.  Attitudinal barriers to delivery of race-targeted pharmacogenomics among informed lay persons. Genetics in Medicine 5:385-392, 2003.

3. Templeton, A. R. 2005. When does life begin?  An evolutionary genetic answer to a central ethical question. Pp. 1-20 in S. Blazer and E. Z. Zimmer, eds. The Embryo from Conception to Birth.  Scientific Discovery, Medical and Ethical Dilemmas. Karger, Basel.