Liebl Lab
Department of Biology
University of South Dakota
Research in the Liebl lab broadly examines how environmental conditions shape the physiology, behavior, and fitness of animals. We are interested in how organisms respond to environmental challenges, how those responses are shaped by social and ecological conditions, and the molecular mechanisms that connect environmental experiences with phenotypic variation.
A major focus of our current research in understanding how environmental experiences becomes biologically embedded through epigenetic mechanisms. We combine field-based studies of wild animals with physiological, behavioral, and molecular lab approaches to investigate how early-life environments influence development and phenotypic trajectories.
Research
Development, environment, & epigenetics
Animals experience considerable variation in the environments they experience, from fluctuations in temperature and rainfall to changes in food availability and social conditions. Our research examines how animals respond to these challenges and how environmental variation influences both immediate and long-term changes to physiology and behavior. We use field-based approaches to understand the mechanisms by which individuals are able to cope with environmental challenges and the consequences associated with those responses.
Phenotypic flexibility & adaptations to environmental challenges
Social environment & cooperative breeding
Early-life environments can have lasting consequences for physiology, behavior, and life-long fitness. We are interested in how environments experienced during development interact with the genome to lead to phenotypic differences among individuals. Using molecular approaches to study genome-wide DNA methylation, we investigate how variation in social environment, resource availability, and other developmental conditions lead to molecular changes. We are particularly interested in how these changes provide a mechanism with later-life phenotypic changes.
Although social interactions are an important part of many species environment, individuals differ substantially in the social conditions they experience throughout life. We investigate how variation in social environment influences development, physiology, behavior, and molecular processes. Chestnut-crowned babbler, a cooperatively breeding species, provide a particularly powerful system for this work due to their complex social structure. Our long-term research in this system, in conjunction with Dr. Andy Russell at the University of Exeter, examines how variation in group composition, parental care, and early-life conditions influences offspring phenotype and molecular signature.
Genotype x environment interactions
The relationship between genotype and phenotype is not always fixed across environments or evolutionary history. We are interested in how environmental context influences the expression and evolution of genome by environment (GxE) interactions to result in complex phenotypic traits. In collaboration with Dr. Chris Anderson at the University of South Dakota, we use anolis lizards to investigate the stability and evolution of GxE interactions across evolution and environment.
From field to lab
Our research combines field observation and experimentation with physiological, behavioral, and molecular approaches. We work with animals in their natural environments, allowing us to examine biological responses in the ecological and social contexts in which they both evolved (as a species) and developed (as an individual). Increasingly, we combine these approaches with genome-wide tools to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying phenotypic variation.