Associate Professor Katrina McGuigan
Associate Professor and Deputy Head of School
School of the Environment
+61 7 336 52855
Researcher biography
My research aims to understand the processes generating and eliminating genetic variation, and the consequences of these processes for the adaptation and surival of species. When populations decline due to factors like habitat loss, selection becomes less effective at maintaining a healthy, robust population. The potential for "mutational meltdown" to drive extinction of populations in these circumstances, were selection is ineffective, has been noted for nearly a centuary. However, the way in which mutations change the traits that affect fitness, and can be removed by selection, remains quite mysterious. We work with native Australian rainforest flies, an amenable model for getting at these complex question. To extend our knowledge of how new mutations can contribute to adaptive potential in populations, we investiage how mutation changes traits ranging from body size to immune response. We use both direct correlations with fitness, and comparison between mutational and standing genetic variance to understand the selection acting on new mutations. We are particulary intereted in understanding the role that pleiotropy - where the same mutation affects more than one trait - might play in how quickly selection can improve fitness of a poulation. Whether changes to traits like size are beneficial or deleterious depends on the context. We therefore measure these mutational effects under different thermal and nutritional conditions to understand, for example, whether mutations that decrease fitness in the current environment might increase it under new environmental conditions. By understanding mutation, and the factors that affect it, our ultimate goal is to improve our predictions of if, and how, populations can adapt to novel environmental conditions.
Publications
Book Chapter
McGuigan, K. and Aguirre, J. D. (2016). Quantitative genetic variation, comparing patterns of. Encyclopedia of evolutionary biology. (pp. 377-387) edited by Richard M. Kliman. Kidlington, Oxford, United Kingdom: Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-800049-6.00045-7
Journal Articles
Kannan, Ashvitha, Dugand, Robert J., Appleton, Nicholas C., Chenoweth, Stephen F., Sgrò, Carla M. and McGuigan, Katrina (2023). Environmental dependence of mutational (co)variances of adaptive traits. Evolution, 77 (11), 2341-2351. doi: 10.1093/evolut/qpad154
Miller, Christina L., Sun, Derek, Thornton, Lauren H. and McGuigan, Katrina (2023). The contribution of mutation to variation in temperature-dependent sprint speed in zebrafish, Danio rerio. American Naturalist, 202 (4), 519-533. doi: 10.1086/726011
Walter, Greg M and McGuigan, Katrina (2023). Predicting the future. eLife, 12 e91450. doi: 10.7554/elife.91450
Richards, Thomas J., McGuigan, Katrina, Aguirre, J. David, Humanes, Adriana, Bozec, Yves‐Marie, Mumby, Peter J. and Riginos, Cynthia (2023). Moving beyond heritability in the search for coral adaptive potential. Global Change Biology, 29 (14), 3869-3882. doi: 10.1111/gcb.16719
Dugand, Robert J., Blows, Mark W. and McGuigan, Katrina (2023). Using inbreeding to test the contribution of non-additive genetic effects to additive genetic variance: a case study in Drosophila serrata. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 290 (1995) 20222111, 1-10. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2022.2111
Hine, Emma, Runcie, Daniel E., Allen, Scott L., Wang, Yiguan, Chenoweth, Stephen F., Blows, Mark W. and McGuigan, Katrina (2022). Maintenance of quantitative genetic variance in complex, multitrait phenotypes: the contribution of rare, large effect variants in 2 Drosophila species. Genetics, 222 (2) iyac122, 1-17. doi: 10.1093/genetics/iyac122
Conradsen, Cara, Blows, Mark W and McGuigan, Katrina (2022). Causes of variability in estimates of mutational variance from mutation accumulation experiments. Genetics, 221 (2) iyac060, 1-14. doi: 10.1093/genetics/iyac060
Dugand, Robert J., Aguirre, J. David, Hine, Emma, Blows, Mark W. and McGuigan, Katrina (2021). The contribution of mutation and selection to multivariate quantitative genetic variance in an outbred population of Drosophila serrata. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118 (31) e2026217118, 1-10. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2026217118
Malard, Lucie, Riginos, Cynthia and McGuigan, Katrina (2021). Skeletal deformities and meristic trait variations are common in the intertidal fish Bathygobius cocosensis (Perciformes‐Gobiidae). Journal of Fish Diseases, 44 (6), 665-673. doi: 10.1111/jfd.13327
McGuigan, Katrina, Hoffmann, Ary A. and Sgrò, Carla M. (2021). How is epigenetics predicted to contribute to climate change adaptation? What evidence do we need?. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 376 (1826) 20200119, 1-10. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0119
Svensson, Erik I., Arnold, Stevan J., Bürger, Reinhard, Csilléry, Katalin, Draghi, Jeremy, Henshaw, Jonathan M., Jones, Adam G., De Lisle, Stephen, Marques, David A., McGuigan, Katrina, Simon, Monique N. and Runemark, Anna (2021). Correlational selection in the age of genomics. Nature Ecology and Evolution, 5 (5), 562-573. doi: 10.1038/s41559-021-01413-3
Thia, Joshua A., McGuigan, Katrina, Liggins, Libby, Figueira, Will F., Bird, Christopher E., Mather, Andrew, Evans, Jennifer L. and Riginos, Cynthia (2021). Genetic and phenotypic variation exhibit both predictable and stochastic patterns across an intertidal fish metapopulation. Molecular Ecology, 30 (18) mec.15829, 4392-4414. doi: 10.1111/mec.15829
Richards, Thomas J., Ortiz‐Barrientos, Daniel and McGuigan, Katrina (2019). Natural selection drives leaf divergence in experimental populations of Senecio lautus under natural conditions. Ecology and Evolution, 9 (12) ece3.5263, 6959-6967. doi: 10.1002/ece3.5263
Walsh, Carly B. and McGuigan, Katrina (2018). Do slower movers have lower reproductive success and higher mutation load?. Evolution Letters, 2 (6), 590-598. doi: 10.1002/evl3.87
Hine, Emma, Runcie, Daniel E., McGuigan, Katrina and Blows, Mark W. (2018). Uneven distribution of mutational variance across the transcriptome of Drosophila serrata revealed by high-dimensional analysis of gene expression. Genetics, 209 (4), 1319-1328. doi: 10.1534/genetics.118.300757
Thia, Joshua A., Riginos, Cynthia, Liggins, Libby, Figueira, Will F. and McGuigan, Katrina (2018). Larval traits show temporally consistent constraints, but are decoupled from post-settlement juvenile growth, in an intertidal fish. The Journal of Animal Ecology, 87 (5), 1353-1363. doi: 10.1111/1365-2656.12844
Collet, Julie M., McGuigan, Katrina, Allen, Scott L., Chenoweth, Stephen F. and Blows, Mark W. (2018). Mutational pleiotropy and the strength of stabilizing selection within and between functional modules of gene expression. Genetics, 208 (4), 1601-1616. doi: 10.1534/genetics.118.300776
McGuigan, Katrina and Aw, Ernest (2017). How does mutation affect the distribution of phenotypes?. Evolution, 71 (10), 2445-2456. doi: 10.1111/evo.13358
Allen, Scott L., McGuigan, Katrina, Connallon, Tim, Blows, Mark W. and Chenoweth, Stephen F. (2017). Sexual selection on spontaneous mutations strengthens the between-sex genetic correlation for fitness. Evolution, 71 (10), 2398-2409. doi: 10.1111/evo.13310
Sztepanacz, Jacqueline L., McGuigan, Katrina and Blows, Mark W. (2017). Heritable micro-environmental variance covaries with fitness in an outbred population of Drosophila serrata. Genetics, 206 (4), 2185-2198. doi: 10.1534/genetics.116.199075
Conradsen, Cara, Walker, Jeffrey A., Perna, Catherine and McGuigan, Katrina (2016). Repeatability of locomotor performance and morphology-locomotor performance relationships. Journal of Experimental Biology, 219 (18), 2888-2897. doi: 10.1242/jeb.141259
Richards, Thomas J., Walter, Greg M., McGuigan, Katrina and Ortiz-Barrientos, Daniel (2016). Divergent natural selection drives the evolution of reproductive isolation in an Australian wildflower. Evolution, 70 (9), 1993-2003. doi: 10.1111/evo.12994
Malard, Lucie A., McGuigan, Katrina and Riginos, Cynthia (2016). Site fidelity, size, and morphology may differ by tidal position for an intertidal fish, Bathygobius cocosensis (Perciformes-Gobiidae), in Eastern Australia. PeerJ, 2016 (7) e2263, e2263. doi: 10.7717/peerj.2263
McGuigan, Katrina, David Aguirre, J. David and Blows, Mark W. (2015). Simultaneous estimation of additive and mutational genetic variance in an outbred population of drosophila serrata. Genetics, 201 (3), 1239-1251. doi: 10.1534/genetics.115.178632
Conradsen, C. and McGuigan, K. (2015). Sexually dimorphic morphology and swimming performance relationships in wild-type zebrafish Danio rerio. Journal of Fish Biology, 87 (5), 1219-1233. doi: 10.1111/jfb.12784
Collet, Julie M., Blows, Mark W. and McGuigan, Katrina (2015). Transcriptome-wide effects of sexual selection on the fate of new mutations. Evolution, 69 (11), 2905-2916. doi: 10.1111/evo.12778
Blows, Mark W., Allen, Scott L., Collet, Julie M., Chenoweth, Stephen F. and McGuigan, Katrina (2015). The phenome-wide distribution of genetic variance. American Naturalist, 186 (1), 15-30. doi: 10.1086/681645
Blows, Mark W. and McGuigan, Katrina (2015). The distribution of genetic variance across phenotypic space and the response to selection. Molecular Ecology, 24 (9), 2056-2072. doi: 10.1111/mec.13023
McGuigan, Katrina, Collet, Julie M., Allen, Scott L., Chenoweth, Stephen F. and Blows, Mark W. (2014). Pleiotropic mutations are subject to strong stabilizing selection. Genetics, 197 (3), 1051-1062. doi: 10.1534/genetics.114.165720
McGuigan, Katrina, Collet, Julie M., McGraw, Elizabeth A., Ye, Yixin H., Allen, Scott L., Chenoweth, Stephen F. and Blows, Mark W. (2014). The nature and extent of mutational pleiotropy in gene expression of male Drosophila serrata. Genetics, 196 (3), 911-921. doi: 10.1534/genetics.114.161232
Latimer, Camille A. L., McGuigan, Katrina, Wilson, Robbie S., Blows, Mark W. and Chenoweth, Stephen F. (2014). The contribution of spontaneous mutations to thermal sensitivity curve variation in drosophila serrata. Evolution, 68 (6), 1824-1837. doi: 10.1111/evo.12392
Hine, Emma, McGuigan, Katrina and Blows, Mark W. (2014). Evolutionary constraints in high-dimensional trait sets. American Naturalist, 184 (1), 119-131. doi: 10.1086/676504
Aguirre, J. D., Hine, E., McGuigan, K. and Blows, M. W. (2014). Comparing G: multivariate analysis of genetic variation in multiple populations. Heredity, 112 (1), 21-29. doi: 10.1038/hdy.2013.12
McGuigan, Katrina and Blows, Mark W. (2013). Joint allelic effects on fitness and metric traits. Evolution, 67 (4), 1131-1142. doi: 10.1111/j.1558-5646.2012.01833.x
Kimmel, Charles B., Cresko, William A., Phillips, Patrick C., Ullmann, Bonnie, Currey, Mark, von Hippel, Frank, Kristjansson, Bjarni K., Gelmond, Ofer and McGuigan, Katrina (2012). Independent axes of genetic variation and parallel evolutionary divergence of opercle bone shape in threespine stickleback. Evolution, 66 (2), 419-434. doi: 10.1111/j.1558-5646.2011.01441.x
McGuigan, Kate, Petfield, Donna and Blows, Mark W. (2011). Reducing mutation load through sexual selection on males. Evolution, 65 (10), 2816-2829. doi: 10.1111/j.1558-5646.2011.01346.x
McGuigan, Katrina, Nishimura, Nicole, Currey, Mark, Hurwit, Dan and Cresko, William A. (2011). Cryptic genetic variation and body size evolution in threespine stickleback. Evolution, 65 (4), 1203-1211. doi: 10.1111/j.1558-5646.2010.01195.x
Hine, Emma, McGuigan, Katrina and Blows, Mark W (2011). Natural selection stops the evolution of male attractiveness. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108 (9), 3659-3664. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1011876108
McGuigan, Katrina, Rowe, Locke and Blows, Mark W. (2011). Pleiotropy, apparent stabilizing selection and uncovering fitness optima. Trends In Ecology & Evolution, 26 (1), 22-29. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2010.10.008
Chenoweth, Stephen F. and McGuigan, Katrina (2010). The genetic basis of sexually selected variation. Annual Review of Ecology Evolution and Systematics, 41, 81-101. doi: 10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-102209-144657
McGuigan, Katrina and Blows, Mark W. (2010). Evolvability of individual traits in a multivariate context: Partitioning the additive genetic variance into common and specific components. Evolution, 64 (7), 1899-1911. doi: 10.1111/j.1558-5646.2010.00968.x
McGuigan, Katrina and Blows, Mark W. (2009). Asymmetry of genetic variation in fitness-related traits: Apparent stabilizing selection on g(max). Evolution, 63 (11), 2838-2847. doi: 10.1111/j.1558-5646.2009.00759.x
McGuigan, K (2009). Condition dependence varies with mating success in male Drosophila bunnanda. JOURNAL OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY, 22 (9), 1813-1825. doi: 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2009.01791.x
McGuigan, K.L. and Sgro, C.M. (2009). Evolutionary consequences of cryptic genetic variation. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 24 (6), 305-311. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2009.02.001
McGuigan, K. L., Van Homrigh, A. J. and Blows, M. W. (2008). An Evolutionary Limit to Male Mating Success. Evolution, 62 (6), 1528-1537. doi: 10.1111/j.1558-5646.2008.00379.x
McGuigan, K. L., Van Homrigh, A.J. and Blows, M. W. (2008). Genetic Analysis of Female Preference Functions as Function-Valued Traits. American Naturalist, 172 (2), 194-202. doi: 10.1086/588075
Van Homrigh, A., Higgie, M., McGuigan, K. and Blows, M. W. (2007). The depletion of genetic variance by sexual selection. Current Biology, 17 (6), 528-532. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2007.01.055
Cresko, W. A., McGuigan, K. L., Phillips, P. C. and Postlethwait, J. H. (2007). Studies of threespine stickleback developmental evolution: Progress and promise. Genetica, 129 (1), 105-126. doi: 10.1007/s10709-006-0036-z
McGuigan, K. and Blows, M. W. (2007). The phenotypic and genetic covariance structure of drosphilid wings. Evolution, 61 (4), 902-911. doi: 10.1111/j.1558-5646.2007.00078.x
McGuigan, K. L. (2006). Studying phenotypic evolution using multivariate quantitative genetics. Molecular Ecology, 15 (4), 883-896. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-294X.2006.02809.x
McGuigan, K., Chenoweth, S. F. and Blows, M. W. (2005). Phenotypic divergence along lines of genetic variance. American Naturalist, 165 (1), 32-43. doi: 10.1086/426600
McGuigan, K., Phillips, P. C. and Postlethwait, J. H. (2004). Evolution of sarcomeric myosin heavy chain genes: Evidence from fish. Molecular Biology And Evolution, 21 (6), 1042-1056. doi: 10.1093/molbev/msh103
McGuigan, Katrina, Franklin, Craig E., Moritz, Craig and Blows, Mark W. (2003). Adaptation of rainbow fish to lake and stream habitats. Evolution, 57 (1), 104-118. doi: 10.1554/0014-3820(2003)057[0104:AORFTL]2.0.CO;2
McGuigan, Katrina Louise (2001). An addition to the rainbowfish (Melanotaeniidae) fauna of North Queensland. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, 46 (2), 647-655.
McGuigan, K. L. (2001). An addition to the rainbowfish (Melanotaeniidae) fauna of North Queensland. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, 46 (2), 647-656.
Mcguigan, K., Zhu, D., Allen, G. R. and Moritz, C. C. (2000). Phylogenetic relationships and historical biogeography of melanotaenlid fishes in Australia and New Guinea. Marine Freshwater Research, 51 (7), 713-723. doi: 10.1071/MF99159
Donnellan, S. C., McGuigan, K., Knowles, R., Mahony, M. and Moritz, C. C. (1999). Genetic evidence for species boundaries in frogs of the Litoria citropa species-group (Anura: Hylidae). Australian Journal of Zoology, 47 (3), 275-293. doi: 10.1071/ZO99013
McGuigan, K, McDonald, K, Parris, K and Moritz, C (1998). Mitochondrial DNA diversity and historical biogeography of a wet forest-restricted frog (Litoria pearsoniana) from mid-east Australia. Molecular Ecology, 7 (2), 175-186. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-294x.1998.00329.x
Conference Paper
McGuigan, Katrina, Nishimura, Nicole, Currey, Mark, Hurwit, Dan and Cresko, William A. (2010). Quantitative genetic variation in static allometry in the threespine stickleback. Annual Meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB 2010), Seattle, United States, 3-7 January 2010. McLean, VA, United States: Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. doi: 10.1093/icb/icq026
Thesis
McGuigan, Katrina Louise. (2001). Evolutionary genetics of rainbowfish : phylogeny, adaptation and constraint. PhD Thesis, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland. doi: 10.14264/105848
Data Collections
McGuigan, Katrina (2024). Drosophila serrata MA immune function. The University of Queensland. (Dataset) doi: 10.48610/48d7c29
McGuigan, Katrina and Dugand, Robert (2023). MxE_Drosophila serrata. The University of Queensland. (Dataset) doi: 10.48610/01993ca
McGuigan, Katrina and Miller, Christina (2023). Zebrafish Ucrit and Morphology. The University of Queensland. (Dataset) doi: 10.48610/2a7ddb6
Hine, Emma, Runcie, Daniel E. , Allen, Scott L. , Wang, Yiguan , Chenoweth, Stephen F. , Blows, Mark W. and McGuigan, Katrina (2021). R code and input files required to generate figures and tables for BSFG analysis of standing variance in two Drosophila datasets. This dataset is the current version and supercedes any earlier versions.. The University of Queensland. (Dataset) doi: 10.48610/a3c5652
Hine, Emma, Runcie, Daniel E., Allen, Scott L., Wang, Yiguan, Chenoweth, Stephen F., Blows, Mark W. and McGuigan, Katrina (2021). Enrichment analysis results for heritable common factors of Drosophila gene expression. The University of Queensland. (Dataset) doi: 10.48610/90441fc
Hine, Emma, Runcie, Daniel E., Allen, Scott L., Wang, Yiguan, Chenoweth, Stephen F., Blows, Mark W. and McGuigan, Katrina (2021). R code used to implement Bayesian sparse factor genetic analysis of Drosophila gene expression.. The University of Queensland. (Dataset) doi: 10.48610/ec9b92c
Hine, Emma , Runcie, Daniel E., Allen, Scott L., Wang, Yiguan, Chenoweth, Stephen F. , Blows, Mark W. and McGuigan, Katrina (2021). Two Drosophila datasets used in the Bayesian sparse factor analysis of standing genetic variance in 3385 gene expression traits. The University of Queensland. (Dataset) doi: 10.48610/f3eede4
Oliveros Sandino, Alejandro , McGuigan, Katrina and Hine, Emma (2020). R code used to simulate directional selection on a moderately heritable polygenic phenotype. The University of Queensland. (Dataset) doi: 10.14264/701bad9