{"id":1,"date":"2015-10-18T23:35:00","date_gmt":"2015-10-18T23:35:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2019-05-30T16:14:04","modified_gmt":"2019-05-30T16:14:04","slug":"emily-durkin-phd-4","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/grad.biology.ualberta.ca\/luong\/emily-durkin-phd-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Emily Durkin (PhD)"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/grad.biology.ualberta.ca\/luong\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2015\/10\/emily.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-331 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/grad.biology.ualberta.ca\/luong\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2015\/10\/emily.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"308\" height=\"351\" \/><\/a>Research Interests<\/h3>\n<p>I am fascinated by symbioses and am particularly interested in how and why they evolve. However, I have a special love for parasites. My research interests include parasitology, evolutionary ecology, coevolution, host-parasite interactions and phenotypic plasticity.<\/p>\n<p>I completed my MSc. under Dr. Jaqueline Bird at Northern Michigan University where I investigated ecological aspects of chewing lice (Pthiraptera) in a population of brown-headed cowbirds (<em>Molothrus ater<\/em>).<\/p>\n<p>My Ph.D. research explores the ecology and evolution of parasitism using a facultatively parasitic mite (<em>Macrocheles muscaedomesticae<\/em>) and fly host (<em>Drosophila hydei<\/em>) system. After experimentally evolving increased infectiousness in the mites, I was curious as to how the facultatively parasitic behaviour is maintained in nature. By comparing traits like fecundity, longevity and infection-plasticity, I hope to determine whether critical evolutionary trade-offs constrain the evolution of more permanent associations between the mites and their hosts.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Publications:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Durkin, E.S. <\/strong>and Luong, L.T. In review. Life history of <em>Macrocheles muscaedomesticae<\/em> (Parasitiformes: Macrochelidae): new insights on life history and evidence of facultative parasitism on <em>Drosophila<\/em>. Submitted <em>E<span class=\"qu\" role=\"gridcell\"><span class=\"gD\" data-hovercard-id=\"em@editorialmanager.com\" data-hovercard-owner-id=\"22\">xperimental and Applied Acarology.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>Durkin, E.S. <\/strong>and Luong, L.T. 2019. Phenotypic plasticity more essential to maintaining variation in host-attachment behaviour than evolutionary trade-offs in a facultatively parasitic mite. <em>Parasitology, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/S0031182019000507<br \/>\n<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>Durkin, E.S. <\/strong>and Luong, L.T. 2018. Experimental evolution of infectious behaviour in a facultative ectoparasite. <em>Journal of Evolutionary Biology <\/em>31: 362-370.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Durkin, E.S.<\/strong>, Luong, L.T., and Bird, J. 2015. Mechanisms underlying parasite infection: influence of host body mass and age on chewing louse distribution among brown-headed cowbirds. <em>Parasitology Research<\/em> 114: 4169-4174.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Contact Information:<\/strong><br \/>\nEmily Durkins, PhD student<br \/>\nLab: B-322 Biological Sciences Bldg.<br \/>\nOffice: B 205<br \/>\nEmail: <a title=\"\" href=\"mailto:edurkin@ualberta.ca\">edurkin@ualberta.ca<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Note: Emily graduated in January 2019 and is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Florida.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Research Interests I am fascinated by symbioses and am particularly interested in how and why they evolve. However, I have a special love for parasites. My research interests include parasitology, evolutionary ecology, coevolution, host-parasite interactions and phenotypic plasticity. I completed my MSc. under Dr. Jaqueline Bird at Northern Michigan University where I investigated ecological aspects [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grad.biology.ualberta.ca\/luong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grad.biology.ualberta.ca\/luong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grad.biology.ualberta.ca\/luong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grad.biology.ualberta.ca\/luong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grad.biology.ualberta.ca\/luong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/grad.biology.ualberta.ca\/luong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":500,"href":"https:\/\/grad.biology.ualberta.ca\/luong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1\/revisions\/500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grad.biology.ualberta.ca\/luong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}