User profile | Biology

Leaché,Adam

Assistant Professor / Curator of Genetic Resources / Curator of Herpetology
leache@uw.edu
206-543-7622 (office)
206-616-2132 (lab)

Web site
KIN 528

Research Overview

Research in the Leache Lab focuses on phylogenetics, systematics, phylogeography, and species delimitation. We study natural populations, and we conduct extensive fieldwork to collect specimens for our research. Most of us are currently studying amphibians and reptiles, but we also have on-going projects focused on birds, mammals, and plants. We maintain active research labs with a mix of graduate and undergraduate students in the Department of Biology and at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture.

We use a wide variety of new genomic tools in our research, including RADseq for phylogeography and species delimitation, reduced-representation libraries (RRL's) and ultra-conserved elements (UCE's) for phylogenetics, and RNAseq for transcriptome studies. We are also interested in phylogenetic methods, and we conduct computer simulations to study statistical aspects of species tree inference.

Biography

At the University of Washington since 2010
Assistant Professor, Department of Biology
Curator of Genetic Resources & Herpetology, Burke Museum
Statistical Genetics Faculty Core

• NSF Bioinformatics Postdoc., UC Davis, 2008–2010
• Ph.D., Integrative Biology, UC Berkeley, 2008
• M.S., Biology, San Diego State University, 2000
• B.S., Biology, San Diego State University, 1997
• A.A., Orange Coast College, Costa Mesa, CA, 1995

Selected Publications

Leaché, AD, Rannala B. 2011. The accuracy of species tree estimation under simulation: a comparison of methods.. Systematic biology. 60(2):126-37. Abstract

Leaché, AD, Fujita MK. 2010. Bayesian species delimitation in West African forest geckos (Hemidactylus fasciatus).. Proceedings. Biological sciences / The Royal Society. 277(1697):3071-7. Abstract

Leaché, AD, Sites JW. 2009. Chromosome evolution and diversification in North American spiny lizards (genus Sceloporus).. Cytogenetic and genome research. 127(2-4):166-81. Abstract

Leaché, AD. 2009. Species tree discordance traces to phylogeographic clade boundaries in North American fence lizards (Sceloporus).. Systematic biology. 58(6):547-59. Abstract

Leache, AD, Cole CJ. 2007. Hybridization between multiple fence lizard lineages in an ecotone: locally discordant variation in mitochondrial DNA, chromosomes, and morphology. 16(5):--1054. Abstract

Leache, AD, McGuire JA. 2006. Phylogenetic relationships of horned lizards (Phrynosoma) based on nuclear and mitochondrial data: Evidence for a misleading mitochondrial gene tree. 39(3):--644. Abstract

Leache, AD, Reeder TW. 2002. Molecular systematics of the Eastern Fence Lizard (Sceloporus undulatus): A comparison of parsimony, likelihood, and Bayesian approaches. 51(1):--68. Abstract