Steven M. Carr
Dr Steve Carr (scarr@mun.ca)
Office: Core Science
Facility CSF-4342
(709) 864-4776
BSc [Biology], California
Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
(1975)
CPhil [Genetics], University of California, Berkeley (1978)
PhD [Genetics], University of California, Berkeley (1983)
Research Interests:
I am Professor of Biology, with a cross-appointment in Population Genetics to the Faculty of Medicine. Research in my lab focuses on patterns and processes of molecular and genome evolution within and among species of vertebrate animals.
I am interested in supervising honours, MSc, and PhD students in the broad areas of:
1. Phylogeographic genomics of Fisheries & Wildlife populations, including Atlantic Cod, Wolffish, Harp Seals, and Newfoundland Caribou
2. Biogeographic evolution of cods and pollocks (Gadidae)
3. Population genomic structure of the founding human population of Newfoundland, including First Nations peoples
4. Development of a novel biotechnology, Iterative DNA sequencing microarrays for evolutionary & population genomics
My lab has taken a whole-mitochondrial-genome approach to the interrelated problems of population and systematic biology. Phylogeographic analysis of completely-resolved inter- and intraspecific gene trees, based on full-length mtDNA genomes, provides the detailed historical information and necessary statistical power to evaluate vicariance and dispersal phenomena at scales of interest to fisheries, wildlife, and population biologists.
Selected Publications:
SM Carr (2023b).
Evolutionary origins of honey bees. BeeCraft,
December 2023, pp. 8-12.
SM Carr (2023a).
Multiple mitogenomes indicate Things Fall
Apart with Out of Africa or Asia hypotheses
for the phylogeographic evolution of Honey
Bees (Apis mellifera). Nature
Science Reports, 13:9386.
SM Carr (2021). Research Commentary: Corrigendum to Arcellana et al. 2011. Journal of Genetics, 90, e90-93.
SM Carr (2020). Evidence for the persistence of ancient Beothuk and Maritime Archaic mitochondrial DNA genome lineages among modern Native American peoples. Genome, 63, 349-355. [Editor's Choice Award, April 2020 ]
C Chilaka, SM Carr, N Shalaby, W Banzhaf (2019). Inclusion of 3-gram neural networks for prediction of normalized signal strengths from a DNA-sequencing microarray. Bioinformation, 15, 388-393.
LA Lait & SM Carr (2018). Intraspecific mitogenomics of three marine Species-At-Risk: Atlantic, spotted, and northern wolffish (Anarhichas spp). Genome, 61, 625-634.
CD Wilkerson, SP Mahoney, & SM Carr. 2018. Post-glacial recolonization of insular Newfoundland gave rise to an endemic subspecies of woodland caribou, Rangifer tarandus terranovae (Bangs, 1896): evidence from mtDNA haplotypes. Genome, 61, 575-585. [Editor's Choice Award, August 2018 ]
LA Lait, HD Marshall, & SM Carr. (2018). Phylogeographic mitogenomics of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua): variation in and among trans-Atlantic, trans-Laurentian, Northern Cod, and landlocked fjord populations. "Evolution & Ecology," 8, 6420-6437.
C Chilaka, SM Carr, N Shalaby, W Banzhaf. (2017). Use of a neural network to predict normalized signal strengths from a DNA-sequencing microarray. Bioinformation, 13, 313-316.
S Royston & SM Carr (2016b). Conservation genetics of high-arctic gulls at risk. II.
S Royston & SM Carr (2016a). Conservation genetics of high-arctic gulls at risk. I. Diversity in the mtDNA Control Region of circumpolar populations of the Endangered Ivory Gull (Pagophila eburnea). Mitochondrial DNA, 27:3995-3999.
SM Carr, AT Duggan, GB Stenson, & HD Marshall (2015). Quantitative analysis of phylogeographic structure; Whole-mitogenome variation among harp seals (Pagophilus groenlandicus) from discrete transatlantic breeding areas. PLoS ONE,10(8): e0134207.
SM Carr & WS Davidson (2015). Panmixia in Greenland Halibut: a response to Roy et al. (2014). Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 72:1121.
SM Carr, HD Marshall, HT Wareham, & D Craig (2015). The Big ORF Theory: Algorithmic, computational, and approximation approaches to Open Reading Frames in short- and medium-length dsDNA sequences. Chapter 13, pp. 265-274 in: Emerging Trends in Computational Biology, Bioinformatics, and Systems Biology (Q-N Tran, HR Arabnia, eds.).
SM Carr, D Craig, & HT Wareham (2014). An algorithmic and computational approach to Open Reading Frames in short dsDNA sequences: Evaluation of “Carr’s Conjecture.” Pp. 37-48 in Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Bioinformatics & Computational Biology. [H. Arabnia et al., eds.].
SM Carr, HT Wareham, Craig D (2014). A web application for generation of random DNA sequences with a single open reading frame: exemplars for genetics and bioinformatics education. CBE – Life Science Education, 13:373-374.
SM Carr (2013). “Known Knowns, Known Unknowns, & Unknown Unknowns”:
SS Seneviratne SS, IL Jones, SM Carr (2012). Patterns of vocal divergence in a group of non-oscine birds (auklets; Alcidae, Charadriiformes). Evolutionary Ecology Research, 14:95-112.
AM Pope, SM Carr, KN Smith HD Marshall (2011). Mitogenomic and microsatellite variation in descendants of the European founding population of the island of Newfoundland: high diversity in an isolated population. Genome, 54,110-119.
SM Carr, AT Duggan, HD Marshall (2009).
Iterative DNA sequencing on microarrays: a
high-throughput NextGen technology for
ecological and evolutionary mitogenomics. Laboratory Focus
13, 8-12.
HD Marshall, MW Coulson, SM Carr (2008). Near
neutrality, rate heterogeneity, and linkage
govern mitochondrial genome evolution in
Atlantic Cod (Gadus
morhua)
and other gadine fish. Molecular Biology and Evolution
26, 579-589.
SM Carr and HD Marshall (2008). Phylogeographic
analysis of complete mtDNA genomes from Walleye
pollock (Gadus
chalcogrammus Pallas, 1811) shows an
ancient origin of Norwegian Pollock. Mitochondrial DNA
19, 490-496.
SM Carr and HD Marshall (2008). Intraspecific
phylogeographic genomics from multiple complete
mtDNA genomes in Atlantic Cod (Gadus morhua):
Origins of the "Codmother," trans-Atlantic
vicariance and midglacial population expansion.
Genetics
180, 381-389.
SJ Moore, DJ Buckley, A MacMillan, HD Marshall,
L Steele, P Ray, Z Nawaz, M Frecker, S M Carr, E
Ives, PS Parfrey (2008). The clinical and
genetic epidemiology of Neuronal Ceroid
Lipofuscinosis in Newfoundland. Clinical Genetics
74,213-222.
SM Carr, HD Marshall, AT Duggan, SMC Flynn, KA
Johnstone, AM Pope, CD Wilkerson (2008).
Phylogeographic genomics of mitochondrial DNA:
highly-resolved patterns of intraspecific
evolution and a multi-species, microarray-based
DNA sequencing strategy for biodiversity
studies. Comparative
Biochemistry and Physiology, D: Genomics and
Proteomics 3, 1-11.
SMC Flynn, SM Carr (2007). Interspecies
hybridization on DNA resequencing microarrays:
efficiency of sequence recovery and accuracy of
SNP detection in human, ape, and codfish
mitochondrial DNA genomes on a human-specific
MitoChip. BMC
Genomics 8,339.
KA Johnstone, HD Marshall, SM Carr (2007).
Biodiversity genomics for Species At Risk:
patterns of DNA sequence variation within and
among complete mitochondrial DNA genomes of
three species of Wolffish (Anarhichas
spp.). Canadian
Journal of Zoology 85, 151-158.
HD Marshall, KA Johnstone, SM Carr (2007).
Species-specific oligonucleotides and multiplex
PCR for forensic discrimination of twoof
scallops, Placopecten
magellanicus and Chlamys islandica.
Forensic
Science International 167, 1-7.
MW Coulson, HD Marshall, P Pepin, SM Carr (2006). Mitochondrial genomics of gadine fishes: Implications for taxonomy and biogeographic origins. Genome 49, 1115-1130.
SM Carr, HD Marshall, KA Johnstone, LM Pynn, & GB Stenson (2002). How to Tell a Sea Monster: Molecular Discrimination of Large Marine Animals of the North Atlantic. The Biological Bulletin 202, 1-5.
SM Carr, SW Ballinger, JN Derr, LH Blankenship, & JW Bickham (1986). Mitochondrial DNA analysis of hybridization between sympatric white-tailed deer and mule deer in west Texas. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (USA) 83, 9576-9580
Current Teaching:
Biol 2250 - Principles of Genetics
Biol 3950 - Principles of
Biotechnology
Biol 4250 - Evolutionary Genetics
Biol 4270 - History of Biology