Ph.D. - Michigan, 1995

  My primary research interests are in conservation genetics and wildlife disease. In particular, I am interested in whether or not reduced genetic diversity (that is, increased homozygosity) makes hosts more susceptible to infection by parasites. This question has important conservation implications because small endangered populations inevitably become inbred, which leads to reduced heterozygosity. This could lead to higher levels of infection and the extinction of populations. I have addressed this question using a variety of approaches, focusing primarily on wild rodents and the parasitic nematodes that live in them (see Publications, below). By performing field surveys of population variation in enzyme diversity and parasitic infection, I have found that inbred deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) populations have higher frequencies of parasite infection (Meagher, 1999). I completed a large controlled experiment and found that inbreeding depresses the fitness of male house mice (Mus domesticus) to a much greater extent in competitive (“semi-natural”) conditions than could be predicted from studies in benign laboratory settings (Meagher et al. 2000). Furthermore, I have found that these same inbred males naturally acquired significantly larger pinworm infections than the other animals in the study (in prep). I am currently performing a controlled infection experiment to test whether inbred oldfield mice (Peromyscus polionotus) are more susceptible to infection with the nematode Trichinellaspiralis. In the future, I hope to apply molecular genetic approaches to examine in a more detailed fashion the correlation between genetic diversity and parasitic infection in both field populations of P. maniculatus, and my laboratory population of P.polionotus. In addition to the particular area of genetic diversity and parasite resistance, I have a general interest in host-parasite co-evolution. I will continue to address questions concerning the physiological effects of parasites on their hosts (Meagher 1998, Meagher and O’Connor 2001, Meagher and Dudek 2002) as well as host-specificity in wild parasites.