Genetics of Invasive Species

On my first day at UCF, my colleague Linda Walters walked into my office and mentioned that she had a general idea that she though we should collaborate on.  Her idea was to investigate ecological (Dr. Walters) and genetic (me) aspects of invasive species that had only recently been observed invading the Florida Atlantic coast.

This research has proved to be quite interesting and fruitful. See below for publications.  These studies have focused on three non-native species, Mytella charruana, Megabalanus coccopoma, and Perna viridis.

Savio H. C. Calazans**, Linda J. Walters, Flavio C. Fernandes, Carlos E. L. Ferreira, and Eric A. Hoffman. 2017. Genetic structure provides insights into the geographic origins and temporal change in the invasive charru mussel (Sururu) in the southeast United States. PLOS ONE, 12:e0180619.

Yuan, Wei S., Linda J. Walters, Sasha A. Brodsky, Kimberly R. Schneider, and Eric A. Hoffman, 2016. Synergistic Effects of Salinity and Temperature on the Survival of Two Nonnative Bivalve Molluscs, Perna viridis (Linnaeus 1758) and Mytella charruana (d’Orbigny 1846). Journal of Marine Biology

Ocean R. Cohen*, Linda J. Walters, and Eric A. Hoffman. 2014. Clash of the Titans: population genetics of the globally invasive Titan Acorn Barnacle, Megabalanus coccopoma. Biological Invasions 16:1743-1756.

Earlier publications:

Spinuzzi, S.* K. Schneider, L. Walters, W. Yuan** and Eric A. Hoffman. 2013. Tracking the distribution of non-native marine invertebrates (Mytella charruana, Perna viridis and Megabalanus coccopoma) in the southeastern USA. Marine Biodiversity Records 6:55-67

Yuan, Wei*, Linda J. Walters, Kimberly R. Schneider and Eric A. Hoffman. 2010. Exploring the survival threshold: A study of salinity tolerance of the non-native mussel, Mytella charruana. Journal of Shellfish Research, 29:415-422

Gilg, Matthew R., Eric A. Hoffman, Kimberly R. Schneider, Josiah Ryabinov, Christine El-Khoury, and Linda J. Walters. 2010. Interaction between marine invasions and land-use changes: recruitment preferences of non-native mussels. Journal of Molluscan Studies 76:333-339

Stenyakina, Anastasia*, Linda J. Walters, Eric A. Hoffman and Cristina Calestani. 2010. Reproductive biology of Mytella charruana, and introduced bivalve in the southeastern United States. Molecular Reproduction and Development, 77:222-230

Gillis, Nancy K.*, Linda J. Walters, Flavio C. Fernandes and Eric A. Hoffman. 2009. Genetic structure of native and introduced populations of the charru mussel Mytella charruana. Diversity and Distributions, 15:784-795