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LEE LAB
430 Lincoln Drive, Birge Hall
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LEE LAB
430 Lincoln Drive, Birge Hall
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Research in the Lee Lab
Research in the Lee Laboratory focuses on evolutionary responses to catastrophic environmental change, including biological invasions, global change, and pollution (e.g. oil spills). Our research integrates evolutionary genetics/genomics and physiology in an ecological context in order to gain core insights into mechanisms that enable expansions into novel niches. Our approaches integrate multiple hierarchical levels of biological organization, exploring molecular genetic mechanisms underlying niche evolution, in order to understand biogeographical patterns at oceanographic scales in nature.
Much of our research centers on physiological and evolutionary mechanisms of adaptation during habitat change. For instance, many invaders into freshwater habitats originate from more saline environments, much more than expected based on transport opportunity or propagule pressure. Such invaders originally from saline environments include zebra and quagga mussels. In addition, habitat salinity is changing throughout the globe due to changes in precipitation patterns and increases in ice melt. For instance, in high latitude environments, coastal waters are experiencing rapid declines in habitat salinity. What mechanisms allow only some populations to cross biogeographic boundaries into such radically different environments, when most cannot?
Current research projects include: (1) genomic mechanisms underlying adaptation associated with radical habitat change, (2) mechanisms of physiological evolution during habitat shifts, and (3) evolution of genome architecture across arthropod clades. Most projects use the copepod Eurytemora affinis species complex as a model system. Other projects have examined other taxa crossing habitat boundaries, including other arthropods, phytoplankton, molluscs, and fish.
Zooplankton, the small floating animals in the water column, are critical in aquatic ecosystems as grazers of algae and food sources for major fisheries. The largest component of zooplankton, and likely the most abundant animals on earth, are copepods (small crustaceans). Given their numerical dominance, understanding how copepod populations can evolve in response to environmental change is of critical ecological importance. The copepod Eurytemora affinis complex presents a valuable model system because of our genomic resources (full genome sequences from multiple clades), short generation times, and ease of culturing that enables laboratory evolution experiments. This copepod is among the most common and abundant metazoan species in coastal habitats, supporting major fisheries, such as herring, anchovy, sardine, and larval salmon. This copepod has invaded freshwater habitats from saline estuaries multiple times independently throughout the world. Native populations of this copepod are also encountering salinity change as a result of climate change. Examining the repeatability of mechanisms underlying freshwater adaptation during habitat transitions could reveal the mechanisms that enable evolutionary pathways to be labile or constrained.
Long-term research interests in the Lee Lab focus on evolutionary dynamics at the interface between habitat boundaries, and factors that allow shifts in habitat type. Results from such research not only have broad implications for biological invasions, but also for understanding global anthropogenic change and macroevolutionary processes, such as the colonization of land.
The Lee Lab welcomes members with a strong interest and background in evolutionary genetics/genomics or evolutionary physiology, preferably with experience in laboratory molecular genetics, physiology, and/or strong quantitative skills. Graduate students in the Lee Lab are admitted through the Graduate Program in Integrative Biology or the Graduate Program in Genetics. Please contact Carol Lee (carollee(at)wisc.edu) if you are interested in joining our research group.
The Lee Lab is also currently seeking Postdoctoral Researchers to join our dynamic and multi-disciplinary team.
Lee Lab News:
December 2025: Postdoc Zhenyong Du's research has been published in Nature Communications! https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-65292-z.
July 2024: Teresa Popp is defending her Ph.D. thesis after 5 years of research in both the Lee Labs at UW-Madison and Université de Montpellier.
May 2024: Ph.D. student Teresa Popp's NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship has been funded!!!
May 2024: Carol Lee and Peter Piermarini's NSF grant proposal has been funded!!! Funding is from NSF-ORCC
April 2024: Undergraduate researcher Brooke Lewis receives the University Hilldale Award
March 2024: Undergraduate researcher Joye Zhou will be starting a Ph.D. at Duke University this Fall
September 2023: Caitlin McDonough-Goldstein joined the lab as an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow
September 2023: Jinhui Wang joined the lab as a Ph.D. student
June 2023: Johannes Wirtz joined the lab as a postdoctoral fellow in the satellite Université de Montpellier lab.
September 2022: Patricia Zito joined the lab as a Ph.D. student
July 2022: David Stern et al.'s paper is out in Nature Communications!
See press release here. Link to the research publication is here.April, 2022: Former lab member Dr. Brian Metzger was offered a faculty position at Purdue University!
March, 2022: Dr. Antoine Fraimont has joined the Lee satellite lab at Université de Montpellier as a postdoctoral researcher
September, 2021: Dr. Zhenyong Du from China Agricultural University (Beijing) has joined the Lee Lab as a postdoctoral researcher
January, 2021: Carol Lee was awarded a "Bridging Ecology and Evolution" grant from the National Science Foundation
November, 2020: Former Ph.D. student Marijan Posavi's paper on Rapid evolution of genome-wide gene expression during freshwater invasions is published in Molecular Ecology
September, 2020: Postdoc David Stern has obtained a computational genomics position at NIH-NIAID!
June, 2020: Postdoc David Stern is interviewed and his research is featured in Nature Ecology & Evolution
May, 2020: Postdoc David Stern's paper on the Evolutionary origins of genomic adaptations in a copepod is published in Nature Ecology & EvolutionApril, 2020: Undergraduate researcher Ben Wilson received the UW Hilldale Award
March, 2020: Former Ph.D. student Davorka Gulisija has started her faculty position at the University of New Mexico and has set up her "Computational Genetics and Evolution Lab"
October, 2019: Carol Lee has been awarded the "Make Our Planet Great Again" grant from Macron's initiative in France, to collaborate with colleagues at the Université de Montpellier
March, 2019: Carol Lee received a travel grant from Taiwan's government to collaborate with Taiwanese colleagues (Sean Chen) on the analysis of arthropod genome evolution
Sample Publications:
Du Z, J Wirtz, YJ Zhou, A Jenstead, T Opgenorth, A Puls, C Meyer, GW Gelembiuk, CE Lee. 2025. Genome architecture evolution in an invasive copepod species complex. Nature Communications. 16:10312. doi:10.1038/s41467-025-65292-z.
Stern DB, NW Anderson, JA Diaz, CE Lee. 2022. Genome-wide signatures of synergistic epistasis during parallel adaptation in a Baltic Sea copepod. Nature Communications. 13:4024.
Stern, DB, CE Lee. 2020. Evolutionary origins of genomic adaptations in an invasive copepod. Nature Ecology & Evolution. 4:1084-1094. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-1201-y Supplementary Tables
Posavi M, D Gulisija, JC Silva, CE Lee. 2020. Rapid evolution of genome-wide expression and plasticity during saline to freshwater invasions by a copepod. Molecular Ecology. 29:4835-4856. DOI: 10.1111/mec.15681
Eyun, S et al. 2017. Evolutionary history of chemosensory-related gene families across the Arthropoda. Molecular Biology and Evolution. 34:1838-1862.
Lee, CE. 2016. Evolutionary mechanisms of habitat invasions, using the copepod Eurytemora affinis as a model system. Evolutionary Applications. 9:248-270.
Posavi M, GW Gelembiuk, B Larget, CE Lee. 2014. Testing for beneficial reversal of dominance during salinity shifts in the invasive copepod Eurytemora affinis, and implications for the maintenance of genetic variation. Evolution. 68:3166-3183.
Lee, CE, GW Gelembiuk. 2008. Evolutionary origins of invasive populations. Evolutionary Applications. 1:427-448.
Lee, CE. 2002. Evolutionary genetics of invasive species. Trends in Ecology and Evolution. 17: 386-391.
