John Mckay

Assistant Professor

jkmckay@ColoState.edu	McKay Lab Website
C206 Plant Sciences
(970) 491-5730

We seek an understanding of the genetic basis of traits involved in adaptation to particular stresses (e.g. drought) for both applied (crop breeding, conservation, invasive species) and theoretical questions in ecology and evolution. Are adaptations due to: many genetic changes or only a few? New mutations or older alleles that persist at some frequency throughout the species range and history?

Course I Teach:

Evolutionary Ecology (BSPM 526) (Fall Odd Years).

Molecular and Genome Evolution (BZ 571) (Spring Even Years)

Representative Publications:

JK McKay, JR Stinchcombe. 2008. Ecological Genomics of Model Eukaryotes. Evolution, 62: 2953-2957.

JK McKay, JH Richards, HM Easlon, T Mitchell-Olds, EA Stahl, T Wayne, T Juenger. 2008. Genetics of drought adaptation in Arabidopsis thaliana II. QTL analysis of drought avoidance traits in a new mapping population. Evolution, 62: 3014-3026.

MA Christman, JH Richards, JK McKay, EA Stahl, TE Juenger, LA Donovan. 2008. Genetic variation in Arabidopsis thaliana for night-time leaf conductance. Plant, Cell and Environment, 31: 1170-1178.

C Ghalambor, JK McKay, S Carroll, D Reznick. 2007. Adaptive versus non-adaptive phenotypic plasticity and the potential for contemporary adaptation in new environments. Functional Ecology 21: 394–407.

JK McKay and RG Latta. 2002. Adaptive population divergence: markers, QTL and traits. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 17: 285-291.