Kyle Keepers
Student Alumni
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Kyle received his BA in Pure Mathematics from the College of Charleston.听 He is a Ph.D candidate at the University of Colorado, Boulder in the Kane Lab in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.听 His areas of interest include organellar genome evolution in lichens, diatoms, and vascular plants, as well as in quantifying the degree of coevolution between the photobiont and mycobiont of lichen-forming fungi.听 His tenure in the IQ Biology program has improved his quantitative analysis skills that have enabled much of his research.

He did his lab rotations in Dr. Roy Parker's lab in听Biochemistry,听Dr. Andres Martin's lab听in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and听Dr. Noah Fierer's lab, CIRES Institute and Ecology & Evolutionary Biology.听

Pogoda, C.S.*.,听Keepers, K.G.*, Hamsher, S.E., Stepanek, J.G., Kane, N.C., Kocielek, J.P.听 Comparative analysis of the chloroplast genomes of six newly sequenced diatoms reveals group II introns in the barcoding region of听cox1. In review at听Mitochondrial DNA Part A.

Pogoda, C.S.,听Keepers, K.G., Lendemer, J.C., Kane, N.C., Tripp, E.A. Reductions in the complexity of mitochondria of lichen-forming fungi shed light on the genome architecture of obligate symbioses.听In review at听Mol Ecol.

Hamsher, S.E.,听Keepers, K.G., Stepanek, J.G., Pogoda, C.S., Kane, N.C., Kocielek, J.P. Chloroplast genomes of three closely related Halamphora spp. (Bacillariophyceae): A case of conserved gene content and extensive genome rearrangement. In prep for听Genome Biol Evol.

Keepers, K.G.*, Pogoda, C.S.*, Kane, N.C. A CURE-based approach to teaching genomic assembly and annotation to university biology students. In prep for听J Microbiol Biol Educ

Gray, DJ, Baker H, Clancy K, Clarke, RC, deCesare K, Fike, J, Gibbs, MJ, Grotenhermen, F, Kane, NC,听Keepers, KG, Land, DP, Lynch RC, Mendieta, JP, Merlin, M, Muller-Vahl K, Pauli, CS, Pearson, BJ, Rhan, B, Ruthenberg, TC, Schwartz CJ, Tittes SB, Vergara, D, White KH, Trigiano, RN.听 (2017).听听听听听Crit. Rev in Plant Sciences.听 Feb 26:1-2.

Vergara, D., Baker H., Clancy K.,听Keepers, KG, Mendieta, JP, Pauli, CS, Tittes SB, White, KH, Kane, NC.听 (2017).听听听听Crit Rev in Plant Sciences.听 Feb 25:1-14.

White, KH, Vergara D,听Keepers, KG, Kane NC. (2016)听听听听Mitochondrial DNA Part B:听 Nov 1:715-716.

Vergara, D., White, KH.,听Keepers, KG., Kane, NC. (2015).听听听听Mitochondrial DNA. Sep 2:1-2.

Keepers, K., Martin, A., Kane, N. (2015).听听听听Mitochondrial DNA听June 10:1-2.

Lauber, C., Metcalf, J.,听Keepers, K., Ackermann, G., Carter, D., Knight, R. (2014).听听.听听Appl. and Environ. Microbiol.听 2014, 80(16):4920. DOI:听 10.1128/AEM.00957-14.

Keepers, K. G. and Martin, A. P. (2014),听Molecular Ecology, 23: 2144鈥�2145. doi: 10.1111/mec.12727

Jessica L Metcalf, Laura Wegener Parfrey, Antonio Gonzalez, Christian L Lauber, Dan Knights, Gail Ackermann, Gregory C Humphrey, Matthew J Gebert, Will Van Treuren, Donna Berg-Lyons,听Kyle Keepers, Yan Guo, James Bullard, Noah Fierer, David O Carter, Rob Knight.听 ""听听eLife听2, e01104鈥揺01104 (2013).

J. L. Metcalf, S. Love Stowell, C. M. Kennedy, K. B. Rogers, D. McDonald, J. Epp,听K. Keepers, A. Cooper, J. J. Austin, and A.P. Martin.听 ""听Molecular Ecology听21, 5194鈥�207 (2012)

Keepers, K. and Harrison, GW.听 鈥�.鈥澨�Studies in Computational Intelligence, 2009, Volume 189/2009, 185-192.

Keepers, K. and Young, P.听 鈥�.鈥澨� The Fibonacci Quarterly, 46/47 (2008/2009), 26-31.

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News

Examples of contig depth distributions from (A) Usnea cornuta and (B) Heterodermia leucomelos used to estimate single鈥恈opy depth of the mycobiont nuclear genome that show the cystobasidiomycete contigs (yellow arrows) fall near, or within, one order of magnitude of the distribution of the 1000 largest contigs in the metagenome (blue bars).

A taxonomically broad metagenomic survey of 339 species spanning 57 families suggests cystobasidiomycete yeasts are not ubiquitous across all lichens

Premise Lichens are fungi that enter into obligate symbioses with photosynthesizing organisms (algae, cyanobacteria). Traditional... Read more
Ring

Extensive chloroplast genome rearrangement amongst three closely related Halamphora spp. (Bacillariophyceae), and evidence for rapid evolution as compared to land plants

Diatoms are the most diverse lineage of algae, but the diversity of their chloroplast genomes,... Read more
Satellite image of the greater Boulder/Denver /Colorado Springs area

Evidence of substrate endemism of lichens on Fox Hills Sandstone: Discovery and description of Lecanora lendemeri as new to science

Recent lichenological investigations of Fox Hills Formation sandstone outcrops in Colorado resulted in the discovery... Read more