Rebecca E. Koch

Rebecca E. Koch
University of Tulsa

Ph.D.

About

48
Publications
16,848
Reads
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1,151
Citations
Introduction
Postdoc in Matt Toomey's lab at the University of Tulsa. Currently researching the genetic bases of carotenoid-based coloration, with connections to honest sexual signaling and mitochondrial processes.
Additional affiliations
February 2019 - present
Monash University (Australia)
Position
  • Fellow
Description
  • Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Research Award fellow (postdoc). Hosted in Damian Dowling's lab.
September 2017 - January 2019
Monash University (Australia)
Position
  • PostDoc Position
Description
  • Postdoc in Damian Dowling's lab
August 2012 - May 2017
Auburn University
Position
  • PhD Student
Education
August 2012 - May 2017
Auburn University
Field of study
  • Biology
September 2007 - June 2011
University of California, Davis
Field of study
  • Evolution, Ecology, and Biodiversity

Publications

Publications (48)
Article
Full-text available
Physiological ecologists require techniques for controlled oxidative challenges in live animals to facilitate the study of oxidative stress. Techniques for manipulating oxidative stress include agents that increase generation of pro‐oxidants, such as paraquat, diquat, radiation, heavy metals, dietary oxidized lipids, and tert ‐butyl‐hydroperoxide,...
Article
Full-text available
Understanding the mechanisms that link ornamental displays and individual condition is key to understanding the evolution and function of ornaments. Immune function is an aspect of individual quality that is often associated with the expression of ornamentation, but a general explanation for why the expression of some ornaments seems to be consiste...
Article
Full-text available
Dietary carotenoids have been proposed to boost immune system and antioxidant functions in vertebrate animals, but studies aimed at testing these physiological functions of carotenoids have often failed to find support. Here we subject yellow canaries (Serinus canaria), which possess high levels of carotenoids in their tissue, and white recessive c...
Article
Full-text available
1.Within the past several decades, resource tradeoffs have emerged as the commonly accepted explanation for how carotenoid‐based coloration links to individual performance. However, the literature on carotenoid signaling is inconsistent in how carotenoid resource tradeoffs are defined, assessed, and interpreted. 2.We provide a clear statement of t...
Article
Biologists have long appreciated the critical role energy turnover plays in understanding variation in performance and fitness among individuals. Whole-organism metabolic studies have provided key insights into fundamental ecological and evolutionary processes. However, constraints operating at subcellular levels—such as those operating within the...
Article
In many species of animals, red carotenoid-based coloration is produced by metabolizing yellow dietary pigments, and this red ornamentation can be an honest signal of individual quality. However, the physiological basis for associations between organism function and the metabolism of red ornamental carotenoids from yellow dietary carotenoids remain...
Article
Full-text available
Carotenoid pigments underlie most of the red, orange, and yellow visual signals used in mate choice in vertebrates. However, many of the underlying processes surrounding the production of carotenoid-based traits remain unclear due to the complex nature of carotenoid uptake, metabolism, and deposition across tissues. Here, we leverage the ability to...
Article
Full-text available
While mitochondria have long been understood to be critical to cellular function, questions remain as to how genetic variation within mitochondria may underlie variation in general metrics of organismal function. To date, studies investigating links between mitochondrial genotype and phenotype have largely focused on differences in expression of ge...
Article
Red coloration is a salient feature of the natural world. Many vertebrates produce red color by converting dietary yellow carotenoids into red ketocarotenoids via an unknown mechanism. Here, we show that two enzymes, cytochrome P450 2J19 (CYP2J19) and 3-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase 1-like (BDH1L), are sufficient to catalyze this conversion. In bir...
Article
Full-text available
Maternal inheritance of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) renders selection blind to mutations whose effects are limited to males. Evolutionary theory predicts this will lead to the accumulation of a male-specific genetic load within the mitochondrial genomes of populations; that is a pool of mutations that negatively affects male, but not female, fitness...
Article
Full-text available
Understanding the evolution of mating display traits and preferences for them is a major aim of behavioral and evolutionary ecology. However, isolating the specific traits used as mate choice criteria and the possible genetic underpinnings of both trait and preference has proven difficult, particularly in natural systems offering little experimenta...
Article
Full-text available
Carotenoid-based coloration in birds is widely considered an honest signal of individual condition, but the mechanisms responsible for condition dependency in such ornaments remain debated. Currently, the most common explanation for how carotenoid coloration serves as a reliable signal of condition is the resource trade-off hypothesis, which propos...
Article
Individual hosts differ extensively in their competence for parasites, but traditional research has discounted this variation, partly because modeling such heterogeneity is difficult. This discounting has diminished as tools have improved and recognition has grown that some hosts, the extremely competent, can have exceptional impacts on disease dyn...
Article
Full-text available
While numerous studies have demonstrated that mitochondrial genetic variation can shape organismal phenotype, the level of contribution the mitochondrial genotype makes to life‐history phenotype across the life course remains unknown. Furthermore, a clear technical bias has emerged in studies of mitochondrial effects on reproduction, with many stud...
Article
Full-text available
Males of many animal species court females using complex behavioural displays that are challenging to produce, and some of these displays have been shown to be associated with aspects of male quality. However, the mechanisms by which behavioural displays are linked to individual condition remain uncertain. Herein, we illustrate fundamental mechanis...
Article
Full-text available
Many of the colour displays of animals are proposed to have evolved in response to female mate choice for honest signals of quality, but such honest signalling requires mechanisms to prevent cheating. The most widely accepted and cited mechanisms for ensuring signal honesty are based on the costly signalling hypothesis, which posits that costs asso...
Article
Full-text available
Significance The yellow, orange, and red colors of birds are produced through the deposition of carotenoid pigments into feathers and skin, and often function as signals in aggressive interactions and mate choice. These colors are hypothesized to communicate information about individual quality because their expression is linked to vital cellular p...
Article
Full-text available
Atlantic Canaries (Serinus canaria) are the most commonly kept caged bird with extensive carotenoid-based plumage coloration. Domestic strains of canaries have been bred for a variety of colors and patterns, making them a valuable model for studies of the genetic bases for feather pigmentation. However, no detailed account has been published on fea...
Article
Full-text available
Sexual selection is widely accepted as an explanation for the evolution of ornamental traits in animals. Theory predicts that ornament evolution via sexual selection is triggered when a population is moved from an equilibrium state by changes in environmental conditions or population parameters and that once initiated, the rate of change can be rap...
Article
Full-text available
Males exhibit more colorful plumage than females in many bird species. Phylogenetic reconstructions indicate that transitions from dichromatism to monochromatism are not uncommon and that monochromatism can result from the evolution of brighter plumage in females. To better understand the time scale over which such changes in dichromatism can evolv...
Article
Full-text available
Carotenoid coloration is the one of the most frequently studied ornamental traits in animals. Many studies of carotenoid coloration test the associations between carotenoid coloration and measures of performance, such as immunocompetence and oxidative state, proceeding from the premise that carotenoids are limited resources. Such studies commonly i...
Preprint
Full-text available
The Atlantic Canary ( Serinus canaria ) is the most common caged bird with extensive carotenoid plumage coloration. Domestic strains of canaries have been bred for a range of colors and patterns, making them a valuable model for studies of the genetic bases for feather pigmentation. However, no detailed account has been published on the feather pig...
Article
Meta-analysis, the statistical synthesis of pertinent literature to develop evidence-based conclusions, is relatively new to the field of molecular ecology, with the first meta-analysis published in the journal Molecular Ecology in 2003 (Slate & Phua 2003). The goal of this article is to formalize the definition of meta-analysis for the authors, ed...
Article
Full-text available
Although birds are generally known for their vocally produced songs and calls, some species have evolved alternate means of acoustic communication that do not require the syrinx. While many of these mechanical sounds are used in a courtship context, the importance of among-and within-individual variation in these sounds is almost entirely unknown....
Article
Full-text available
Information exchange (or signaling) between plants following herbivore damage has recently been shown to affect plant responses to herbivory in relatively simple natural systems. In a large, manipulative field study using three annual plant species (Achyrachaena mollis, Lupinus nanus, and Sinapis arvensis), we tested whether experimental damage to...
Data
The effect of neighbor wounding and relatedness (maternal siblings or unrelated) on plant biomass (grams, log-transformed) of three experimental plant species in the field. Least Square Mean +/− SE. (TIF)
Data
Mixed model results for biomass of field receivers. (DOC)
Data
The effect of neighbor wounding and relatedness (maternal siblings or unrelated) on the likelihood of feeding by generalist Spodoptera caterpillars in a laboratory feeding trial (as an indicator of leaf palatability to generalists). The potted plant was exposed to a damaged or undamaged neighbor in the field for 2 days. At this point the plant was...
Data
Mixed model results for fruit production of field receivers. (DOC)
Data
Mixed model results for seed production of field receivers. (DOC)
Data
Mixed model results for leaf removal on field receivers by species. When no variation was detected in a covariate for a particular species, this is noted with n/a. (DOC)
Data
Mixed model results for Pieris leaf removal on bioassay receivers. (DOC)
Data
The effect of neighbor wounding and relatedness (maternal siblings or unrelated) on lifetime fruit production (log-transformed) of three experimental plant species in the field. Least Square Mean +/− SE. (TIF)
Data
Binomial model results for phenology of field receivers by species. (DOC)
Data
Mixed model results for Spodoptera leaf removal on bioassay receivers. (DOC)
Data
Mixed model results for Spodoptera leaf removal on bioassay receivers, by species. (DOC)
Data
Binomial model results for initiation of Spodoptera feeding bioassay receivers. (DOC)
Data
Binomial model results for initiation of Spodoptera feeding on bioassay receivers by species. (DOC)
Data
Binomial model results for phenology of field receivers. (DOC)
Data
Mixed model results for Pieris caterpillar weight gain on bioassay receivers. (DOC)

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