Contact Information
Champaign, IL 61820
Research Interests
Host parasite systems provide an opportunity to study the interface between microevolutionary processes and macroevolutionary patterns. The goals of my current research center around recovering the coevolutionary history of birds and their ectoparasitic lice. The degree of cospeciation varies across different groups of lice.
Education
PhD, Ecology, University of Minnesota, 1997
BS, Biology, Bethel College, St Paul MN, 1991
Additional Campus Affiliations
Principal Ornithologist, Illinois Natural History Survey
Affiliate, Entomology
Recent Publications
Boyd, B. M., James, I., Johnson, K. P., Weiss, R. B., Bush, S. E., Clayton, D. H., & Dale, C. (2024). Stochasticity, determinism, and contingency shape genome evolution of endosymbiotic bacteria. Nature communications, 15(1), Article 4571. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-48784-2
Grant, A. R., Johnson, K. P., Stanley, E. L., Baldwin-Brown, J., Kolenčík, S., & Allen, J. M. (2024). Rapid Targeted Assembly of the Proteome Reveals Evolutionary Variation of GC Content in Avian Lice. Bioinformatics and Biology Insights, 18. https://doi.org/10.1177/11779322241257991
Johnson, K. P., & Doña, J. (2024). Phylogenomics and biogeography of the feather lice (Phthiraptera: Ischnocera) of parrots. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, Article blae034. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1093/biolinnean/blae034
Kolencik, S., Stanley, E. L., Punnath, A., Grant, A. R., Doña, J., Johnson, K. P., & Allen, J. M. (2024). Parasite escape mechanisms drive morphological diversification in avian lice. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 291(2019), Article 20232665. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.2665
Kolencik, S., Sychra, O., Johnson, K. P., Weckstein, J. D., Sallam, M. F., & Allen, J. M. (2024). The parasitic louse genus Myrsidea (Amblycera: Menoponidae): a comprehensive review and world checklist. Insect Systematics and Diversity, 8(3), Article ixae007. https://doi.org/10.1093/isd/ixae007