Tonia Schwartz, PhD

Tonia Schwartz, PhD

  • Associate Professor
  • Biological Sciences
    • tss0019@auburn.edu
    Rouse 306
    Google Scholar
    LinkedIn
    Schwartz Lab Website

    Dr. Tonia Schwartz started her research career as an undergraduate at Iowa State University working with Drs. Bonnie Bowen and Carol Vleck using genetic markers to study populations of jays and to determine the sex of penguins. While doing a Masters of Science at University of South Florida with Dr. Steven Karl, she obtained a foundation in Population and Conservation Genetics while deciphering the population structure of gopher tortoises. Before starting her PhD she spent four years in Australia conducting research on diverse topics including fisheries management, speciation and hybridization, molecular evolution of metabolic proteins, and sexual selection. As a genetics PhD student at Iowa State University she was an NSF-IGERT fellow in Computational Molecular Biology, a NSF-GK12 fellow, and was advised by Drs. Anne Bronikowski and Jo Anne Powell-Coffman for her dissertation identifying how molecular stress response networks can diverge between natural populations of garter snakes that are at either end of the pace-of-life continuum. She was awarded a James S. McDonnell post-doctoral fellow in complexity science, which she took to University of Alabama at Birmingham to work in the Office of Energetics with Drs. David Allison and Julia Gohlke. During this time she studied transgenerational affects of stress on metabolism, reproduction, and longevity, and the evolution of molecular networks. In 2015 she was hired as an Assistant Professor at Auburn, and thus the Schwartz lab of Functional and Ecological Genomics was established.

    Education

    • PhD Iowa State University 2012

    • MS University of South Florida 2003

    • BS Iowa State University 1998

    Professional Experience

    • 2021– Current Associate Professor. Auburn University, Department of Biological Sciences. Research in Functional Genomics Teaching: Genetics, Functional Genomics, Population Genetics, Evolutionary Epigenetics
    • 2015 – 2021 Assistant Professor. Auburn University, Department of Biological Sciences
    • 2013-2015 James S. McDonnell Post-doctoral Fellowship in Complexity Science. Advisors: Drs. David Allison and Julia Gohlke, University of Alabama at Birmingham. PROJECT TITLE: EVOLUTION OF MOLECULAR STRESS NETWORKS AND COMPLEX TRAITS.
    • 2007-2012 Doctorate of Philosophy in Genetics. Advisors: Drs. Anne Bronikowski and Jo Anne Powell-Coffman, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, U.S.A. Research Excellence Award. DISSERTATION TITLE: THE EVOLUTION OF STRESS RESPONSE AND LIFE HISTORY TRAITS IN NATURAL POPULATIONS OF GARTER SNAKES. 
    • 2005-2007 Lab Manager / Research Assistant in Molecular Ecology and Sexual Selection, under the direction of Professor Mats Olsson, School of Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong, Australia
    • 2004 Research Assistant in Environmental Physiology, under the direction of Dr. Frank Seebacher at School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
    • 2003-2004 Research Assistant in Molecular Ecology and Fisheries Conservation Genetics, and Genetics Lab Tutor under the direction of Dr. Luciano Beheregaray at Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.
    • 2003 Administrative Assistant. First Year Biology Office, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
    • 2002-2003 Research Staff in Population Genetics and Fisheries Management, under direction of Drs. Theresa Bert and Michael Tringali, Florida Marine Research Institute (FMRI), Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FFWCC), St. Petersburg; and Dr. John Reynolds, Mote Marine Research Laboratory, Sarasota, Florida, U.S.A.
    • 1999-2003 Masters of Science, Advisor: Dr. Stephen Karl, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, U.S.A. Degree in Zoology; emphasis in Evolutionary Genetics, Molecular Ecology, and Conservation Genetics. THESIS TITLE: POPULATION STRUCTURE OF THE GOPHER TORTOISE (GOPHERUS POLYPHEMUS) IN FLORIDA,USING MICROSATELLITES.
    • 1998-1999 Undergraduate Research Assistantship in Molecular Ecology and Conservation Genetics, Advisors Drs. Bonnie Bowen and Carol Vleck. Iowa StateUniversity, Ames, Iowa, U.S.A.

    Innovation

    The mission of the Schwartz Lab is to discover new knowledge of how environmental stressors regulate life history traits such as reproduction and longevity in natural animal populations, bridging the gap between evolutionary biology and biomedical research. Our research findings are used to inform both human health and animal conservation. We strive for integrity, transparency and open science as we disseminate our findings for the betterment of human society and our natural world.

    ​We conduct experimental and observational studies utilizing physiological and functional and population genomic data to address questions on (1) how molecular stress response networks evolve and drive life history traits; and (2) how individuals respond to stress at the genetic, physiological, and organismal levels, and the consequential effects on life history traits and trade-offs. See the Schwartz Lab Website for information on current projects.

    Engagement


    Schwartz Lab Members participate in many outreach activities. See the Schwartz Lab Website for more information.

    Example Publications

    Below are example publications from my research group. See full list of publications on Google Scholar.

    Beatty, A., Rubin, A. M., Wada, H., Heidinger, B., Hood, W. R., & Schwartz, T. S. (2022). Postnatal expression of IGF2 is the norm in amniote vertebrates. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 289(1969), 20212278. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.2278

    Klabacka, R. L., Parry, H. A., Yap, K. N., Cook, R. A., Herron, V. A., Horne, L. M., Wolak, M. E., Maldonado, J. A., Fujita, M. K., Kavazis, A. N., Oaks, J. R., & Schwartz, T. S. (2022). Reduced Mitochondrial Respiration in Hybrid Asexual Lizards. The American Naturalist, 199(5), 719–728. https://doi.org/10.1086/719014

    Westfall, A. K., Telemeco, R. S., Grizante, M. B., Waits, D. S., Clark, A. D., Simpson, D. Y., Klabacka, R. L., Sullivan, A. P., Perry, G., Sears, M., Cox, C. L., Cox, R., Gifford, M., John-Alder, H., Langkilde, T., Angilletta, M., Leaché, A., Tollis, M., Kusumi, K., & Schwartz, T. (2021). A chromosome-level genome assembly for the Eastern Fence Lizard (Sceloporus undulatus), a reptile model for physiological and evolutionary ecology. GigaScience, 10(10), giab066. https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giab066

    Schwartz, T. S. (2020). The Promises and the Challenges of Integrating Multi-Omics and Systems Biology in Comparative Stress Biology. Integrative and Comparative Biology, 60(1), 89–97. https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icaa026

    Zohdy, S., Schwartz, T. S., & Oaks, J. R. (2019). The Coevolution Effect as a Driver of Spillover. Trends in Parasitology, 35(6), Article 6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pt.2019.03.010

    Sparkman, A. M., Clark, A. D., Brummett, L. J., Chism, K. R., Combrink, L. L., Kabey, N. M., & Schwartz, T. S. (2018). Convergence in reduced body size, head size, and blood glucose in three island reptiles. Ecology and Evolution, 8(12), Article 12. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4171Â

    McGaugh, S. E., Bronikowski, A. M., Kuo, C.-H., Reding, D. M., Addis, E. A., Flagel, L. E., Janzen, F. J., & Schwartz, T. S. (2015). Rapid molecular evolution across amniotes of the IIS/TOR network. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(22), 7055–7060. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1419659112

    Schwartz, T. S., & Bronikowski, A. M. (2013). Dissecting molecular stress networks: Identifying nodes of divergence between life-history phenotypes. Molecular Ecology, 22(3), Article 3. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-294X.2012.05750.x