Tyler Hether

Collecting Frogs

Contact Info:

Email: tyler.hether@knights.ucf.edu

Research Interests

Tyler Hether is a 3rd year Master’s student in the Hoffman Lab.  His general research focus centers around the appreciation of genetic diversity found within and among populations.  Several of his projects use novel microsatellite markers to give mechanistic insight into the evolutionary forces responsible for such diversity.  He is especially interested in looking at gene flow and genetic structure in real populations separated by a complex mosaic of suitable and inhospitable habitats, dispersal barriers, and corridors.  He is currently looking at these and other landscape variables, and how they relate to gene flow, in populations of the squirrel treefrog, Hyla squirella, found throughout the southeastern USA. 

Education:

2010       M.S., Biology, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, Expected Spring 2010
2006       B.S., Biology, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida

Publications:

Jenkins D.G,…, T.D. Hether, et al.   Isolation by distance: 20th century relic or reference standard for 21st century landscape genetics?  Manuscript in preparation  (Ecography)

Degner, J.F., T.D. Hether, E.A. Hoffman.  Testing for selection along a cline of color change in a polymorphic frog.  Manuscript in preparation  (Evolution)

Hether, T. D. and E. A. Hoffman. Characterization of five dinucleotide and six tetranucleotide polymorphic microsatellite loci for the squirrel treefrog (Hyla squirella).  Manuscript in press (Mol. Ecol. Resour.)

Degner, J. F., T. D. Hether, and E. A. Hoffman. 2009. Eight novel tetranucleotide and five cross-species dinucleotide microsatellite loci for the ornate chorus frog (Pseudacris ornata). Mol. Ecol. Resour. 9:622-624.

Meeting Presentations:

2009         Biogeography Conference, Baja, Mexico.  Title: “Isolation by distance is dead: long live IBD” Contributing author

2009         Sixth Annual Southeastern Ecology and Evolution Conference (SEEC), Gainesville, Florida. Title: “Is clinal variation in skin color of the ornate chorus frog (Pseudacris ornata) driven by natural selection?” Primary author

2008         Evolution Conference at the University of Minnesota.  Title: “Testing for selection along a cline of color change in a polymorphic frog” Contributing author