THE WHITEMAN LABORATORY
  • Home
  • Group Members
    • Principal Investigator, Dr. Noah Whiteman
    • Research Specialist Susan Bernstein
    • Postdoctoral Researchers and Research Associates >
      • Dr. Samridhi Chaturvedi
      • Dr. Moe Bakhtiari
      • Dr. Benjamin Goldman-Huertas
      • Dr. Carolina Reisenman
    • Graduate Students >
      • Jessica Aguilar
      • Nicolas Alexandre
      • Diler Haji
      • Julianne Pelaez
      • Hiromu Suzuki
      • Rebecca Tarnopol
      • Kirsten Isabel Verster
    • Undergraduate Students >
      • Saron Akalu
      • Jaden Ha
      • Selah-Marie Grogan
      • Gillian Oaks
      • Ashleigh Takemoto
      • Jossie Tamsil
    • Former members >
      • Eric Rogers
      • Ted Chor
      • Dr. Teruyuki Matsanaga
      • Anna Pham
      • Anna Leipertz
      • Michael Astourian
      • Ashley Bendl
      • Elizabeth Ordeman
      • Bridget Cheng
      • Irene Liang
      • Gillian Montross
      • Esteban Rodas
      • Giovani Pimentel-Solorio
      • Faye Romero
      • Marissa Sandoval
      • Shivani Sundaram
      • Kannagi Yashroy
      • Derrick Yip
      • Haarini Sridhar
      • Sneha Agrawal
      • Dr. Marianna Karageorgi
      • Kevin Miao
      • Dr. Rebecca Duncan
      • Kelly D'Ambrogia
      • Jiarui Wang
      • Tim O'Connor
      • Judith Okoro
      • William Farley
      • Dr. Cathy Rushworth
      • Andy Gloss
      • Alana Augur
      • Hoon Pyon
      • Julianne Ray
      • Dr. Simon "Niels" Groen
      • Dr. David Hembry (PERT Postdoctoral Fellow)
      • Dr. Jennifer Koop (PERT Postdoctoral Fellow)
      • Dr. Anna Nelson Dittrich (PERT Postdoctoral Fellow)
      • Dr. Rick Lapoint (PERT Postdoctoral Fellow)
      • Dr. Paul Nabity (USDA-NIFA Postdoctoral Fellow)
      • Christina Meyer
      • Parris Humphrey
      • Lea Flechon
      • Research Specialist, Tim Rast
      • Amir Abidov
      • Allan Castillo
      • Matt Cravens
      • Mitchell Feldmann
      • Jason Giles
      • Lauren Johnston
      • Noel Kitchen
      • Erika LaPlante
      • Matthew J. Velasquez
    • Internal page >
      • Protocols
      • Recommended Reading
  • Research
  • Publications
  • DEI
    • #leadership
    • #participation
    • #recruitment
    • #belonging
    • #accountability
  • Join
  • Contact
  • "Monarch Fly"

Rick Lapoint, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Researcher

University of Arizona
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
BioSciences West Room 310 
1041 East Lowell Street
Tucson, Arizona 85721

Office: BioSciences West 333
Email: rlapoint [at] email [dot] arizona [dot] edu
Picture

Appointments and Education

  • PERT Postdoctoral Fellow, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, May 2011-present
  • Ph.D., Environmental Sciences, Policy & Management, University of California, Berkeley, May 2011
  • B.S., Biosciences & Technology/Genetics, University of New Hampshire, May 2005

Research Interests

The Family Drosophilidae is a speciose and diverse group of flies, and my research focuses on understanding what drives this diversity. Within Drosophilidae is the genus Scaptomyza, a large clade ideal for studying biogeographic patterns and ecological diversification. While most Drosophilidae, such as the genetic model Drosophila melanogaster, are saprophages, Scaptomyza larvae exploit a wide variety of unusual food sources, including spider eggs and mining living plant material. I use phylogenetics and genomics to address new questions of my own and augment ongoing studies in the Whiteman lab on the evolution of herbivory and leaf-mining. Over the course of my postdoctoral tenure I will: 
                    
  1. Infer the phylogenetic relationships in the genus Scaptomyza. This large radiation of flies is found throughout the world, on all of the continents except Antarctica, and remote islands in both the Atlantic and Pacific. Placing this diversity into a robust taxonomic framework is  important for framing further research questions in an evolutionary context.          
  2.  Examine the evolutionary history of ecological adaptations, specifically leaf-mining. I use phylogenetic methods to infer when, where and how often traits, such as leaf-mining, have evolved in Scaptomyza. 
  3. Explore the genomic changes underlying the transition to herbivory. Using next generation sequencing, I am assembling the genome of Scaptomyza flava, a leaf-mining species, and comparing it to non-herbivorous Drosophilidae to understand at the genetic level how S. flava has adapted to this novel lifestyle.

Background

I graduated with a B.S. from the University of New Hampshire in 2005 and received my Ph.D. in May of 2011 from the Department of Environmental Sciences, Policy and Management at the University of California, Berkeley in Dr. Patrick O'Grady's Lab. My PhD thesis revolved around the Hawaiian Drosophila, a hyper diverse radiation of Hawaiian endemic species that display a wide spectrum of ecologies, morphologies and behaviors. I focused on a large clade of Hawaiian Drosophila species, using phylogenetic and population genetic methods at several different temporal and biogeographic scales.

Picture

Publications

  • Lapoint, R.T., O’Grady, P.M., and Whiteman, N.K. (Accepted). Diversification and Dispersal of the Hawaiian Drosophilidae: the evolution of Scaptomyza. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution
  • Whiteman, N.K., Gloss, A.D., Sackton, T., Groen, S., Humphrey, P.T., Lapoint, R., Sønderby, I., Halkier, B.A., Kocks, C., Ausubel, F.M. and Pierce, N.E. 2012. Genes involved in the evolution of herbivory by a leaf-mining drosophilid fly. Genome Biology and Evolution 4: 788-804.
  • Lapoint, R.T., and N. Whiteman. 2012. How a Bird is an Island. BMC Biology 10:53. (Commentary).
  • Lapoint, R.T., Gidaya, A., and O’Grady, P.M. 2011. Phylogenetic Relationships in the Spoon Tarsus        Subgroup of Hawaiian Drosophila: Conflict and Concordance Between Gene Trees. Molecular        Phylogenetics and Evolution 58(3): 492-501.
  • O’Grady, P.M., Lapoint, R.T., Bonacum, J., Lasola, J., Owen, E., Wu, Y., and DeSalle, R. 2011.  Phylogenetic and ecological relationships of the Hawaiian Drosophila inferred by mitochondrial DNA analysis. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 58(2): 244-256.
  • O'Grady, P.M., Magnacca, K.N., and Lapoint, R.T. 2010. Taxonomic relationships within the endemic     Hawaiian Drosophilidae. Records of the Hawaii Biological Survey 108: 3-35.
  • Lapoint, R.T., Magnacca, K.N., and O'Grady, P.M. 2009. Review of the spoon tarsus subgroup of Hawaiian Drosophila (Drosophilidae: Diptera), with a description of one new species. Zootaxa 2003: 53-68.
  • O'Grady, P.M., Magnacca, K.N., and Lapoint, R.T. 2009. Drosophila. In: Encyclopedia of Islands (Gillespie, RG, and Clague, D, eds.). Pp. 232-235. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.
  • Kaneshiro, K.Y. and Lapoint, R.T. 2009. Sexual Selection. In: Encyclopedia of Islands (Gillespie, R.G. and Clague, D., eds.). Pp. 825-829. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.
  • O'Grady, P.M., Lapoint, R.T. and Bennett, G.M. 2008. The potential and peril of the supertree approach: A response to van der Linde and Houle. Insect Systematics and Evolution 39: 269-280.
  • O'Grady, P.M., Ashburner, M., Castrezana, S., DeSalle, R., Kaneshiro, K.Y., Lapoint, R.T., Magnacca, K.N., Markow, T.A., McAllister, B., Ruíz, A., Vilela, C.R., and Val, F.C. 2008. Comment on the proposed  conservation of usage of Drosophila Fallén, 1823 (Insecta, Diptera). Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 65(2): 141-144.
  • Drosophila Chromosome Working Group. 2008. Polytene chromosomal maps of 11 Drosophila species:  The order of genomic scaffolds inferred from genetic and physical maps. Genetics 179: 1601-1655.
  • Drosophila 12 Genomes Consortium. 2007. Evolution of genes and genomes on the Drosophila phylogeny. Nature 450: 203-218.

Curriculum Vitae

top to bottom: Fern Canyon, CA; Gifford-Pinchot NF; Hopeful, in Yosemite NP

Picture

left to right: Scaptomyza flava, a leaf-mining drosophilid; Kohala Forest Reserve, Hawaii; spoon tarsus species Drosophila sordidapex

The Whiteman Lab | Integrative Biology | University of California | Berkeley, CA 94720

Photographs are copyright protected by Noah Whiteman, Whiteman lab members, or were obtained through Creative Commons licenses.
  • Home
  • Group Members
    • Principal Investigator, Dr. Noah Whiteman
    • Research Specialist Susan Bernstein
    • Postdoctoral Researchers and Research Associates >
      • Dr. Samridhi Chaturvedi
      • Dr. Moe Bakhtiari
      • Dr. Benjamin Goldman-Huertas
      • Dr. Carolina Reisenman
    • Graduate Students >
      • Jessica Aguilar
      • Nicolas Alexandre
      • Diler Haji
      • Julianne Pelaez
      • Hiromu Suzuki
      • Rebecca Tarnopol
      • Kirsten Isabel Verster
    • Undergraduate Students >
      • Saron Akalu
      • Jaden Ha
      • Selah-Marie Grogan
      • Gillian Oaks
      • Ashleigh Takemoto
      • Jossie Tamsil
    • Former members >
      • Eric Rogers
      • Ted Chor
      • Dr. Teruyuki Matsanaga
      • Anna Pham
      • Anna Leipertz
      • Michael Astourian
      • Ashley Bendl
      • Elizabeth Ordeman
      • Bridget Cheng
      • Irene Liang
      • Gillian Montross
      • Esteban Rodas
      • Giovani Pimentel-Solorio
      • Faye Romero
      • Marissa Sandoval
      • Shivani Sundaram
      • Kannagi Yashroy
      • Derrick Yip
      • Haarini Sridhar
      • Sneha Agrawal
      • Dr. Marianna Karageorgi
      • Kevin Miao
      • Dr. Rebecca Duncan
      • Kelly D'Ambrogia
      • Jiarui Wang
      • Tim O'Connor
      • Judith Okoro
      • William Farley
      • Dr. Cathy Rushworth
      • Andy Gloss
      • Alana Augur
      • Hoon Pyon
      • Julianne Ray
      • Dr. Simon "Niels" Groen
      • Dr. David Hembry (PERT Postdoctoral Fellow)
      • Dr. Jennifer Koop (PERT Postdoctoral Fellow)
      • Dr. Anna Nelson Dittrich (PERT Postdoctoral Fellow)
      • Dr. Rick Lapoint (PERT Postdoctoral Fellow)
      • Dr. Paul Nabity (USDA-NIFA Postdoctoral Fellow)
      • Christina Meyer
      • Parris Humphrey
      • Lea Flechon
      • Research Specialist, Tim Rast
      • Amir Abidov
      • Allan Castillo
      • Matt Cravens
      • Mitchell Feldmann
      • Jason Giles
      • Lauren Johnston
      • Noel Kitchen
      • Erika LaPlante
      • Matthew J. Velasquez
    • Internal page >
      • Protocols
      • Recommended Reading
  • Research
  • Publications
  • DEI
    • #leadership
    • #participation
    • #recruitment
    • #belonging
    • #accountability
  • Join
  • Contact
  • "Monarch Fly"