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Background
I grew up in Bolton, MA, a rural town whose main industry is apple orchards. I spent
five years in Providence, RI where I completed a bachelors of science in biology at
Brown and thoroughly explored all the swimming holes in the Ocean State. After graduating
in 2002, I pursued my interest in humans and primates as a technician in the lab of
Michael Hammer at the University of Arizona in Tucson. In the fall of 2005, I moved back
to Massachusetts and began the Ph.D. program in OEB.
Research interests
My broad interests are in population genetics, molecular evolution, and sexual selection. I am
particularly motivated by biological and behavioral differences between the sexes and molecular
adaptations to mating systems. As an undergraduate at Brown, my interest in science was fostered
by David Rand and
Marc Tatar, with whom I
completed a project on the molecular evolution of a primate seminal protein, semenogelin I,
which coagulates into a copulatory plug in some species. I sequenced this gene in several
great ape species with diverse mating systems and found a relationship between strength of
positive selection and mating system where polyandrous species such as chimpanzee showed
stronger selection than monandrous species such as gorilla.
In Michael Hammer's lab,
I sequenced Alu-elements on the human Y chromosome and developed novel markers for
population genetic studies. We used these Y sequences in conjunction with mtDNA and X linked
sequences to characterize the historical demographic factors that have shaped human genetic
variation. One interesting result was higher female migration rates among native Siberian
populations, and a skewed sex ratio in favor of females in some populations known to be
polygynous. I was fortunate enough to be involved with the preliminary work for an
ongoing project looking for genetic
evidence of admixture between modern humans and archaic hominids.
I am currently interested in characterizing the evolution of reproductive proteins in
Drosophila species with diverse reproductive ecology. Female remating frequency is known
to vary across Drosophila taxa, which could results in different selective pressures on
proteins involved in sperm competition or sexual conflict. In addition, I am interested in the
evolution of sex chromosomes and the consequences of sex-biased inheritance on the genomic
composition of sex chromosomes and molecular evolution of sex-linked loci. I am developing a
bioinformatics project using comparative genomic data from vertebrates to characterize the
effects of X-linkage on rates of molecular evolution.
Publications
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Garrigan, D., Z. Mobasher, S. B. Kingan, M. M. Pilkington,
J. A. Wilder, H. Soodyall, B. Strassman, G. Destro-Bisol, P. de Knijff, A. Novelletto,
and M. F. Hammer 2005 The structure of human genetic diversity: A comparison of
mitochondrial, X, and Y chromosome sequences. Genome Research. Submitted.
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Garrigan, D., Z. Mobasher, S. B. Kingan, J. A. Wilder, and M. F.
Hammer 2005 Deep haplotype divergence and long-range linkage disequilibrium at
Xp21.1 provide evidence that humans descend from a structured ancestral population.
Genetics. In press.
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Edwards, S. V., S. B. Kingan, J. D. Calkins, C. N. Balakrishnan,
W. B. Jennings, W. J. Swanson, and M. D. Sorenson 2005 Speciation in birds: Genes,
geography, and sexual selection. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 102: 6550-6557.
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Wilder, J. A., S. B. Kingan, Z. Mobasher, M. M. Pilkington
and M. F. Hammer 2004 Global patterns of human mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosome
structure are not influenced by higher migration rates of females versus males.
Nat. Gen. 36: 1122-1125.
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Kingan, S. B., M. Tatar, and D. M. Rand 2003 Reduced polymorphism
in the chimpanzee semen coagulating protein, semenogelin I. J. Mol. Evol.
57: 159-169.
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Hobbies
In Tucson, I stated skating with Tucson Roller Derby and later started a roller derby
league in Providence (providencerollerderby.com) after moving back east last summer. We had our
first bout on May 1st, which
was a huge success. In addition to roller derby, I like to cook, drink beer, go to shows and knit.
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