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Academic Degrees

  • Ph.D. in Zoology, University of Illinois, Urbana
  • M.S. in Zoology, University of Illinois, Urbana
  • B.S. in Education (Major, Mathematics), Eastern Illinois University, Charleston

Courses Taught

  • Biometry
  • Genetics
  • Population Genetics
  • Hypothesis Testing
  • Evolution
  • General Zoology

Professional Service

Associate Editor, Frontiers in Evolutionary and Population Genetics

Frontiers in Evolutionary and Population Genetics is a specialty section of the journal Frontiers in Genetics

For information about this new journal: http://www.frontiersin.org/journal/genetics

Quantitative Genetics of Growth and Asymmetry

My research program has centered around quantitative genetics of growth of various morphometric characters (chiefly bone and tooth dimensions) in mice and rats. Much of this program has involved estimation of genetic and environmental components of variance and covariance for characters that has allowed a greater understanding of problems relating to growth and allometry. Much of this research has focused on assessing the genetical basis for fluctuating asymmetry (FA), the variation typically found between right and left sides of bilateral characters. FA is thought to be an excellent indicator of developmental homeostasis, and increasingly has been used to compare stability levels in populations subjected to genetic or environmental stressors such as inbreeding, hybridization, parasitic infections, pollution, and sexual selection. We have successfully used quantitative trait locus (QTL) studies to assess genetical variation in FA and related asymmetries. Most recently, I have been collaborating in investigations into the ecology and evolution of wild populations of soybeans.

 

Publications Since 2012

  • Leamy LJ, Gordon RR, Pomp D. 2012.  Epistatic control of mammary cancer susceptibility in mice may depend on the dietary environment.  Hereditary Genetics 1:2.
  • Ivanina AV, Kurochkin IO, Leamy L, Sokolova IM.  2012.  Effects of temperature and cadmium exposure on the mitochondria of oysters (Crassostrea virginica) exposed to hypoxia and subsequent reoxygenenation.  The Journal of Experimental Biology 215: 3142-3154.
  • Leamy LJ, Kelly SA, Hua K, Pomp, D.  2012.  Exercise and diet affect quantitative trait loci for body weight and composition traits in an advanced intercross population of mice.  Physiological Genomics 44:(23) 1141-1153.
  • Leamy LJ, Kelly SA, Hua K, Farber CR, Pomp D.  2013.  Quantitative trait loci for bone mineral density and femoral morphology in an advanced intercross population of mice.  Bone 55: 222-229.
  • Howden R, Cooley I, Van Dodewaard C, Arthur S, Cividances, S, Leamy LJ, McCann Hartzell K, Gladwell W, Martin J, Scott G, Ray M, Mishina  S.  2013.  Heart rate, PR-interval and QT-interval responses to hyperoxia inBmp2 and Bmp4heterozygous mice.  Inhalation Toxicology 9: 509-516.
  • Leamy LJ, Elo K, Nielsen MK, Thorn SR, Valdar W, Pomp D.  2014.  Quantitative trait loci for energy balance traits in an advanced intercross line derived from mice divergently selected for heat loss.  PeerJ 2:e392http://dx.doi.org/q0.7717/peerj.392.   
  • Leamy LJ, Lee C-R, Cousins V, Mujacic I, Manzaneda AJ, Prassad K, Mitchell-Olds T, Song, B-H.  2014.  Large-scale adaptive divergence inBoechera fecunda, an endangered wild relative of Arabidopsis.  Ecology and Evolution doi: 10: 1002/ece3.1148.
  • Leamy LJ, Kelly SA, Nietfeldt J, Legge RM, Ma F, Hua K, Sinha R, Peterson DA, Walter J, Benson AK, Pomp D.  2014.  Host genetics and diet, but not immunoglobulin A expression, converge to shape compositional features of the gut microbiome in an advanced intercross population of mice.  Genome Biology 15: 552.  doi: 10.1186/s13059-014-0552-5 .
  • Leamy LJ, Klingenberg CP, Sherratt E, Wolf JB, Cheverud JM.  2015.  The genetic architecture of fluctuating asymmetry of mandible size and shape in a population of mice; another look.  Symmetry 7:146-163.
  • Leamy LJ, Lee C-R, Song Q, Mujacic I,  Luo Y, Chen CY, Li C, Kjemtrup S, Song B-H.  2016.  Environmental versus geographical effects on genomic variation in a wild soybean (Glycine soja) across its native range in northeast Asia.  Ecology and Evolution 6: 6332-6344.
  • Queen AE, Moerdyk-Schauwecker M, McKee LM, Leamy LJ, Huet YM.  2016.  Differential expression of inflammatory cytokines and stress genes in male and female mice in response to a lipopolysaccharide challenge.  PLOS one.  http://dx.doi.org/10.137/journal.pone.0152289.
  • Ivanina AV, Nesmelova I, Leamy L, Sokolov EP, Sokolova IM.  2016.  Intermittent hypoxia leads to functional reorganization of mitochrondria and affrects cellular bioenergetics in marine molluscs.  Journal of Experimental Biology 219: 1659-1674.
  • Zhang H-Y,  Mittal N, Leamy LJ, Barazani O, Song BH.  2016.  Back into the wild-apply untapped genetic diversity of wild relatives for crop improvement.  Evolutionary Applications.  doi: 10.1111/eva.12434.

 

 

Past Graduate Students

  • 2008. Keller, James. Ph.D. Postdoctoral Fellowship, NIH.
  • 2007. Chelsea Landon. M.S. Thesis: The effect of prenatal 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-Dioxin exposure on Cyp1a1, Cyp2e1, Egf, and Egfr expression in adult congenic mice. (Ph.D Student, Integrated Toxicology Program, Duke University)
  • 2007. Johnny Chung-Yao Huang. The Effect Of 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-Dioxin On Molar Traits In Congenic Mice: A Test Of the Role Of The Ahr Locus. (Working in private sector).
  • 2001. Carisa R. Davis. M.S. Thesis: “Quantitative trait loci for shape and asymmetry of mandible characters in mice developmentally exposed to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin. (Ph.D. student, University of South Florida, Tampa).
  • 2000. Michael S. Workman. M.S. Thesis: “Analysis of QTL effects on the size and shape of mandibular molars in mice”. (Biostatistician).
  • 2000. Desiree Allen. M.S. Thesis: “2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin affects size and shape, but not asymmetry, of mandibles in mice.” (Completed Ph.D., Indiana University).
  • 1987. Linda Urkevich. M.S. Thesis: “Fluctuating asymmetry of morphometric characters in a randombred population of house mice: the effects of age, sex, and phenotypical extremeness.” (Completed Ph.D., University of California, Irvine).
  • 1978. Stephen G. Self. M.S. Thesis: “Heritability of quasi-continuous skeletal traits in a randombred population of house mice.” (Completed Ph.D., University of Washington)
  • 1977. Benjamin Charles Deeley III. M.S. Thesis: “Effects of alleles at the agouti locus on behavioral traits in house mice.”
  • 1976. Stephen Arthur Fredette. M.S. Thesis: “Partitioning of behavior into prenatal and postnatal maternal components in the house mouse.” (Completed D.D.S., UCLA).
  • 1974. Schelly Rae Schwam. M.S. Thesis: “The effects of alleles at the agouti locus on osteometric traits in the house mouse.”
  • 1971. Russel Alan Riddle. M.S. Thesis: “Selection on odontometric and osteometric characters in natural populations of Peromyscus californicus insignis“. (Completed Ph.D., Oregon State University).

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