Initial Guidance Comittee:  Theodore Garland, Jr. (Chair), Mark Chappell, Kim Hammond

My primary interests are in ecological and evolutionary animal physiology and energetics. My Master's thesis was a study of the effects of ambient temperature on metabolism and body composition in two species of bats, and its implications for bat conservation biology (Abstract). My dissertation will focus on the effects of the genetic selection that has been imposed, in Ted Garland’s selectively bred lines of house mice, as compared with the phenotypic plasticity that can occur when mice have been given access to running wheels and the ability to “self-train.” Projects will examine bone morphology, organ plasticity, the hypoxic and hypercapnic ventilatory response, blood pressure, and locomotor endurance. The following are projects, also involving the high-activity mice, I have worked on in addition to work related directly to my dissertation: cost of locomotion, susceptibility to activity anorexia, susceptibility to a parasitic nematode infection (as the high-activity mice have chronically elevated plasma corticosterone levels), and estrous cycle length in relation to selection and training.

Publications

Kelly, S.A. and T.E. Tomasi. 2003. Ambient Temperature Effects on Metabolism and Body Composition in Torpid Bats (Myotis lucifugus and Pipistrellus subflavus). Integrative and Comparative Biology 43(6): 900. (Abstract)

Kelly, S.A. and T. Garland. 2004. Experimental Evolution and Phenotypic Plasticity of Hindlimb Bones in High-Activity House Mice. Integrative and Comparative Biology 44(6): 581. (Abstract)

Bunkers, J.L., S.A. Kelly, A. Bhanvadia, K.M. Blank, E. G. Platzer and T. Garland Jr. 2004. Susceptibility of Mice with Chronically Elevated Plasma Corticosterone to a Parasitic Nematode Infection. Integrative and Comparative Biology 44(6): 531. (Abstract)

Rezende, E.L., S.A. Kelly, F.R. Gomes, T. Garland, Jr., and M.A. Chappell. Conditionally Accepted. Effects of Size, Sex and Voluntary Running Speeds on Costs of Transport in Lines of Laboratory Mice Selected for High Wheel-Running Activity. Physiological and Biochemical Zoology.

Kelly, S.A., P.P. Czech, J.T. Wight, K.M. Blank, and T. Garland, Jr. In review. Experimental Evolution and Phenotypic Plasticity of Hindlimb Bones in High-Activity House Mice. Journal of Morphology.

Last updated 9 June 2005 by T.G.