Schyler A. Ellsworth

Area of research

Genetics · Global and Planetary Change

Research interest

Research topics from publications: A global accounting of medically significant scorpions: Epidemiology, major toxins, and comparative resources in harmless counterparts; Phylogenetically diverse diets favor more complex venoms in North American pitvipers; The Tiger Rattlesnake genome reveals a complex genotype underlying a simple venom phenotype; Venom-gland transcriptomics and venom proteomics of the Hentz striped scorpion (Centruroides hentzi; Buthidae) reveal high toxin diversity in a harmless member of a lethal family; Size Matters: An Evaluation of the Molecular Basis of Ontogenetic Modifications in the Composition of Bothrops jararacussu Snake Venom; The genetic regulatory architecture and epigenomic basis for age-related changes in rattlesnake venom; ToxCodAn: a new toxin annotator and guide to venom gland transcriptomics; Gradual and Discrete Ontogenetic Shifts in Rattlesnake Venom Composition and Assessment of Hormonal and Ecological Correlates; Female-biased population divergence in the venom of the Hentz striped scorpion (Centruroides hentzi); Convergent recruitment of adamalysin-like metalloproteases in the venom of the red bark centipede (Scolopocryptops sexspinosus). Representative work: The role of natural selection in the evolution of trait complexity can be characterized by testing hypothesized links between complex forms and their functions across species. Predatory venoms are composed of multiple proteins that collectively function to incapacitate prey. Venom complexity fluctuates over evolutionary timescales, with apparent increases and decreases in complexity, and yet the causes of this variation are unclear. We tested alternative hypotheses linking venom complexity and ecological sources of selection from diet in the largest clade of front-fanged venomous snakes in North America: the rattlesnakes, copperheads, cantils, and cottonmouths. We generated independent trans Variation in gene regulation is ubiquitous, yet identifying the mechanisms producing such variation, especially for complex traits, is challenging. Snake venoms provide a model system for studying the phenotypic impacts of regulatory variation in complex traits because of their genetic tractability. Here, we sequence the genome of the Tiger Rattlesnake, which possesses the simplest and most toxic venom of any rattlesnake species, to determine whether the simple venom pheno

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