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Julian Catchen

Profile picture for Julian Catchen

Contact Information

233B Morrill Hall
505 S. Goodwin Ave
Urbana, IL 61801

Associate Professor

Research Interests

How do genomes change over time? In particular, we want to examine how the architecture of a genome changes in response to major evolutionary events — what architectural changes occur in a genome seeding an invasive species, or a genome underlying a large, long-term species radiation? 

Additional Campus Affiliations

Associate Professor, Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior
Affiliate, Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology

Highlighted Publications

Rivera-Colón, A. G., Rayamajhi, N., Fazal Minhas, B., Madrigal, G., Bilyk, K. T., Yoon, V., Hüne, M., Gregory, S., Cheng, C.-H. C., & Catchen, J. M. (2023). Genomics of Secondarily Temperate Adaptation in the Only Non-Antarctic Icefish. Molecular biology and evolution, 40(3), Article msad029. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msad029

Minhas, B. F., Beck, E. A., Cheng, C. H. C., & Catchen, J. (2023). Novel mitochondrial genome rearrangements including duplications and extensive heteroplasmy could underlie temperature adaptations in Antarctic notothenioid fishes. Scientific reports, 13(1), Article 6939. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-34237-1

Rochette, N. C., Rivera-Colón, A. G., Walsh, J., Sanger, T. J., Campbell-Staton, S. C., & Catchen, J. M. (2023). On the causes, consequences, and avoidance of PCR duplicates: Towards a theory of library complexity. Molecular ecology resources, 23(6), 1299-1318. https://doi.org/10.1111/1755-0998.13800

Rivera-Colón, A. G., & Catchen, J. (2022). Population Genomics Analysis with RAD, Reprised: Stacks 2. In Methods in Molecular Biology (pp. 99-149). (Methods in Molecular Biology; Vol. 2498). Humana Press Inc.. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-2313-8_7

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Recent Publications

Dudaniec, R. Y., Yadav, S., Catchen, J., & Kleindorfer, S. (2025). Genomic Introgression Between Critically Endangered and Stable Species of Darwin's Tree Finches on the Galapagos Islands. Evolutionary Applications, 18(1), Article e70066. https://doi.org/10.1111/eva.70066

Madrigal, G., Minhas, B. F., & Catchen, J. (2025). Klumpy: A tool to evaluate the integrity of long-read genome assemblies and illusive sequence motifs. Molecular ecology resources, 25(1), Article e13982. https://doi.org/10.1111/1755-0998.13982

Paris, J. R., King, R. A., Ferrer Obiol, J., Shaw, S., Lange, A., Bourret, V., Hamilton, P. B., Rowe, D., Laing, L. V., Farbos, A., Moore, K., Urbina, M. A., van Aerle, R., Catchen, J. M., Wilson, R. W., Bury, N. R., Santos, E. M., & Stevens, J. R. (2025). The Genomic Signature and Transcriptional Response of Metal Tolerance in Brown Trout Inhabiting Metal-Polluted Rivers. Molecular ecology, 34(1), Article e17591. https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.17591

de Flamingh, A., Gnoske, T. P., Kerbis Peterhans, J. C., Simeonovski, V. A., Gitahi, N., Mwebi, O., Agwanda, B. R., Catchen, J. M., Roca, A. L., & Malhi, R. S. (2024). Compacted hair in broken teeth reveals dietary prey of historic lions. Current Biology, 34(21), 5104-5111.e4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.09.029

de Flamingh, A., Gnoske, T. P., Rivera-Colón, A. G., Simeonovski, V. A., Kerbis Peterhans, J. C., Yamaguchi, N., Witt, K. E., Catchen, J., Roca, A. L., & Malhi, R. S. (2024). Genomic analysis supports Cape Lion population connectivity prior to colonial eradication and extinction. Journal of Heredity, 115(2), 155-165. Article esad081. https://doi.org/10.1093/jhered/esad081

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