Andrew Wheeler
PhD Student
I am a genetics Ph.D. student with an astrobiology minor interested in the evolution of proteins across earth's history. I am currently working on inferring changes in amino acid frequencies using non-stationary models of amino acid substitution, and using this to infer evolutionary transitions in habitat temperature. I also work on methodological improvements to amino acid substitution models, for more accurate phylogenetic inference and ancestral sequence reconstruction.
Social links:
Email: awheeler2@arizona.edu
Twitter: @phylowheeler
Publications :
Wehbi S, Wheeler A, Morel B, Manepalli N, Minh BQ, Lauretta DS, Masel J. (2024) Order of amino acid recruitment into the genetic code resolved by Last Universal Common Ancestor’s protein domains, PNAS 121: e2410311121.
Weibel C, Wheeler A, James JE, Willis SM, McShea H, Masel J (2024). The protein domains of vertebrate species in which selection is more effective have greater intrinsic structural disorder, eLife 12:RP87335.
Agrimson, Kellie S., Anna Minkina, Danielle Sadowski, Andrew Wheeler, Mark W. Murphy, Micah D. Gearhart, Vivian J. Bardwell, David Zarkower. (2022) Lrh1 can help reprogram sexual cell fate and is required for Sertoli cell development and spermatogenesis in the mouse testis. PLoS Genetics 18, no. 2 : e1010088.
Murphy, M. W., Gearhart, M. D., Wheeler, A.L., Bardwell, V. J., & Zarkower, D. (2022). Genomics of sexual cell fate transdifferentiation in the mouse gonad. G3, 12(12), jkac267.
Kalis, A.K., Sterrett, M.C., Armstrong, C., Ballmer, A., Burkstrand, K., Chilson, E., Emlen, E., Ferrer, E., Loeb, S., Olin, T. Tran, K., Wheeler, A.L., Wolff, J.R. (2022). Hox proteins interact to pattern neuronal subtypes in Caenorhabditis elegans males. Genetics, 220(4), p.iyac010.