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 AL, Morel B, Minh BQ, Lauretta DS, Masel J. (2024) Identifying the Last Universal Common Ancestor’s protein domains resolves the order in which the amino acids were recruited into the genetic code. bioRxiv
Weibel C, Wheeler AL, James JE, Willis SM, Masel J. (2023) A new codon adaptation metric predicts vertebrate body size and tendency to protein disorder, eLife, reviewed preprint.
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.