Experimental Evolution of Viruses

Telephone: (919) 843-2691

E-mail: cburch at bio.unc.edu

Office: 235 Wilson Hall

Mailing Address:
CB# 3280, Coker Hall
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-3280

Associate Professor (Initial Appointment: 2002)
Ph.D.: University of California, San Diego (2000)
B.S. Biology: University of Maryland (1995)
B.S. Mathematics: University of Maryland (1995)

Ecology and Population Biology (BIOL 54)
Evolutionary Genetics (BIOL 158)

I have taken an experimental approach to the study of evolution because it allows me to address questions from many areas of evolutionary biology.  Evolution experiments using microorganisms have been able to address widely ranging topics from kin selection and the evolution of virulence to the evolution of mutation rates, and the evolution of habitat (or host) specialization.

Although I am interested in all aspects of evolutionary biology, and students and postdocs in my lab are encouraged to develop independent projects that follow their own interests, the primary focus of my work has been to investigate the genetics of adaptation.  I am using laboratory evolution experiments of bacteriophage (bacterial viruses) to address the following questions:

• Does adaptation occur by large or small steps?
• Are certain genotypes better able to adapt than others?
• Can we identify factors that shape the nature of interactions between mutations?

Bacteriophage serve as particularly suitable systems for addressing the genetics of adaptation because they offer the opportunity to observe events on an evolutionary timescale within weeks or even days.  For example, we can watch evolution of the bacteriophage phi-6 in action.  The following pictures were taken at different timepoints during the evolution of a low fitness phage genotype toward an adaptive optimum  What you're seeing is a pale gray background that is the bacterial lawn and dark circles where phage have landed, replicated, and killed bacteria to make cleared circles that we call plaques.  It is easy to monitor adaptation in phi6 because plaque size is a strong correlate of fitness (i.e. relative growth rate).  As beneficial mutations appear and become common in adapting populations, fitness improves and plaque size increases.

t = 0	t = 50 generations	t = 100 generations