I’m Matt, a biologist interested in integrating genomics and transcriptomics with other levels of biological organization. I’ve worked on (in no particular order) white sturgeon, lake sturgeon, walleye, Sacramento splittail, and redside dace. I’ve helped others in their research with sea lamprey, orca, purple martin, spiny dogfish, and other species. This research involves lots of bioinformatics and statistics-you can see examples of this code on my GitHub page. It often has implications for conservation, such as how coauthors and I quantified the genetic benefits of sampling white sturgeon from the wild for rearing and release, versus catching adults and breeding them in captivity. In another paper, coauthors and I used genetic variation with RNA to identify genetic groups in a lake, which is an unusual approach for genetics since DNA is normally used. But I showed that RNA does work for these genetic questions, too.

Speaking of RNA, I have used it to address physiological questions as well. For instance, I looked at how gene expression and alternative splicing interact in an endangered fish exposed to heat. In a preprint, coauthors and I studied microbiology and gut physiology using de novo transcriptomes. I’ve also analyzed metabolites and linked them to fish growth in a non-genetics-ey paper. In a review done with my lab at the time, I even got to write a bit about philosophy. My current primary role is to make the lake sturgeon reference genome in the Anderson Lab of the University of Manitoba. It’s a difficult task because they have 8 copies of each chromosome. I also have ongoing projects on the evolution of Arctic whales, global bat genetic variation with respect to breeding or migration strategies, and the evolution of shark stress responses. To see all my research papers, check out my Google Scholar page.

Send an email if you’d like any papers! matt.thorstensen[at]gmail.com

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