RCC Spotlight: Dr. Emma Lehmberg

Dr. Emma Lehmberg earned her Bachelor’s degree at the University of Ottawa, double majoring in English and Biology. She then earned her Master’s degree at the University of Toronto, where she studied weakly electric knifefish (Gymnotus carapo). Following the completion of her MSc, Dr. Lehmberg earned her PhD at Texas A&M University, focusing her research on speciation, and the role of sexual selection and sexual conflict in mediating these phenomena. 

Currently, Dr. Lehmberg is collaborating with Dr. Joseph Travis in the FSU Department of Biological Science on a National Science Foundation funded grant. The project explores how the evolution of the placenta influences speciation, particularly in live-bearing fish species such as mollies, guppies, and swordtails (Poeciliidae). While all species are live bearing, some species develop a fully formed placenta to nourish their young, while others simply carry their eggs internally. Due to the prolonged contact between offspring and mothers, the paternal portion of the fetal genome can trigger increased supply of nutrients beyond what a female would normally provide. This reproductive tug-of-war sparks a post-fertilization conflict between males and females. This dynamic creates evolutionary pressure, with females developing ways to limit nutrient transfer and males working to maximize it—especially in species with multiple fathers per litter. A similar process occurs in mammals, where the placenta is programmed by the paternal genome to draw more nutrients from the mother.  

A male Poecilia latipinna (lower left) can be seen courting a female Poecilia latipinna (top right). 

Dr. Lehmberg and her team are investigating whether specific traits are linked to this form of reproduction and testing whether specific species have suites of reproductive traits that are predictive of genetic isolation (speciation). There are 275 species found across the Americas, and Dr. Lehmberg collected tissue samples from museums to sequence their genomes. She extracted DNA from these samples and sent it to a sequencing center to generate a whole genome. Once processed, the data must be transferred to a server with a large storage capacity, as each genome is roughly 800Gb of raw data. 

To process data of this magnitude, high computational power is necessary. This is where the Research Computing Center (RCC) comes in. The RCC manages the High Performance Compute cluster, the system that Dr. Lehmberg and her team use to analyze DNA sequencing data, estimate reproductive isolation, and conduct additional analyses that help us understand speciation.  

“The RCC has been an incredible resource for this research. I really appreciate the people who work there that help manage all this data.” -Dr. Emma Lehmberg

The research Dr. Lehmberg and her team are conducting helps look at evolutionary biology questions on both the micro and macro scales. Their work provides valuable insights into how reproductive strategies shape species and drive evolutionary change over time. 

*Image courtesy of Joseph Travis