J. E. Kowalko

The paper studies how local interaction rules change during development and evolution in Mexican tetra fish, showing surface fish develop schooling behavior through alignment and attraction, while cavefish lose schooling behavior.

This study shows that selection, not mutation, drives repeated trait evolution in cavefish, with genes having longer coding regions being more likely to undergo repeated adaptation.

This paper describes optimized husbandry practices for the blind Mexican cavefish that accelerate growth and sexual maturation without affecting adult behavior.

The paper compares aggression in surface fish and cavefish of Astyanax mexicanus, finding that multiple cave populations have independently evolved reduced aggression through shared behavioral traits.

This study shows hybridization contributes to localized trait evolution in cavefish by analyzing genomic and phenotypic variation in Chica cave pools.

This study investigates the genetic basis of trait evolution in Mexican cavefish by analyzing behavioral and morphological differences between surface and cave populations.

This study describes and evaluates remote undergraduate research programs in life sciences during the COVID-19 pandemic, identifying strengths, weaknesses, and recommendations for improvement.

This study identifies oca2 as a gene with pleiotropic effects that contributes to both albinism and sleep loss in cavefish.

The paper uses kinematic analysis to show that cavefish's loss of schooling behavior is an adaptive strategy, not just a sensory limitation, and is consistent across independently evolved populations.

This study shows that cavefish populations have independently evolved circadian clock dysregulation, with reduced transcriptome rhythmicity and sleep reduction linked to specific gene mutations.