Postdoctoral Fellow, Hanley Lab
Department of Biology
New Mexico State University
PO Box 30001 Dept. 3AF
Las Cruces, NM 88003-8001
Phone: (505) 646-4791
e-mail: kpepin@nmsu.edu
Web: http://biology-web.nmsu.edu/hanley/pepin
Lab page:
http://biology-web.nmsu.edu/hanley/
Education
PhD University of Idaho, 2006
BSc University of British Columbia, 1998
My dissertation research focused on examining the genetic basis of adaptation. I took advantage of the unique experimental features of bacteriophage fX174 (small genome, fast evolution) to investigate how genetic properties of genomes and populations affect fitness and adaptive outcome. My current research aims to apply concepts from evolutionary biology and ecology to understand and predict population dynamics of an important human pathogen, the arbovirus Dengue.
There are four serotypically distinct groups of dengue viruses (i.e., serotypes DENV1-4). All four types are maintained in humans at endemic levels but periodically cause epidemics and are expanding globally. Both humans and mosquitoes can be co-infected with more than one serotype. Some typical epidemiological patterns during epidemics are: 1) co-circulation of serotypes, 2) one serotype initially predominates and disease severity is low, 3) a second serotype appears later and disease severity increases, and 4) prevalence of different serotypes fluctuates. I am interested in how competitive interactions between virus serotypes, and between genotypes with different fitnesses, may guide epidemiological patterns and evolution of dengue virus populations.
In collaboration with Devin Drown at WSU, I am working towards constructing a mathematical model that will help identify conditions that facilitate competitive exclusion or coexistence of dengue serotypes in human populations. We are interested in how the combined effects of ecological processes within the vector and host and evolutionary dynamics of the virus contribute to virus population dynamics. The general goals are to build a tool for studying factors that cause a shift from endemic to epidemic dengue and to predict disease patterns during the emergence and spread of an epidemic in order to gain insight to disease prevention and control strategies.
Pepin K.M., Samuel, M.A., and Wichman H.A. Interconnection of genotype, a fitness component, and fitness: pleiotropic effects from mutations at the same locus hamper prediction of fitness from a fitness component. 2006 Genetics 172:2047-2056. [PDF]
Pepin K.M., Momose F., Ishida N., and Nagata K. Molecular cloning of horse Hsp90 cDNA and its comparative analysis with other vertebrate Hsp90 sequences. 2001 J Vet Med Sci. 63(2):115-24.
Pepin K.M. and Wichman H.A. Variable epistatic effects between mutations at host recognition sites in fX174 bacteriophage. Submitted to Evolution, March 2006.
Pepin K.M. and Wichman H.A. Resource Limitation Affects Clonal Interference in Large Populations of Bacteriophage fX174. Submitted to Genetics, July 2006.
Gomulkiewicz R., Drown, D.M., Dybdahl M.F., Godsoe W., Nuismer S.L., Pepin K.M., Ridenhour B.J., Smith C.I., and Yoder J.B. Do’s and Don’ts of testing the geographic mosaic theory of coeveolution. Submitted to Heredity, July 2006.
Updated: March, 2007