Adam G. Jones is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology. He received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Environmental, Population and Organismic Biology from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1992. He then moved to the University of Georgia and earned his Ph.D. in Genetics under the mentorship of Dr. John C. Avise in 1998. Jones then took a position as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Stevan Arnold in the Department of Zoology at Oregon State University. From 2002 to 2004, Jones was an Assistant Professor in the School of Biology at Georgia Institute of Technology. In the summer of 2004, he moved to his current position at Texas A&M. His research involves the use of molecular and quantitative techniques to understand phenotypic evolution in natural populations, with a major focus on the evolution of morphology and male pregnancy in seahorses and their relatives. Adam Jones will be joining the Department of Biology staff in Fall of 2004.

Jones Lab Website

Adam G. Jones
Associate Professor

3258 TAMU
College Station, TX 77843-3258

Office:
Biological Sciences Building East
Room 118D
979-845-7774

Lab:
Biological Sciences Building East
Room 116
979-845-4342

Fax: 979-845-2891
Email: ajones@mail.bio.tamu.edu

Research in the Jones Lab is concerned with the mechanisms of phenotypic change in evolutionary lineages. Most of the research effort in the lab is directed at (1) the use of molecular techniques to resolve unanswered questions in sexual selection, (2) theoretical studies of quantitative genetics and behavior, and (3) the evolution of major morphological innovations. Other research projects in the lab involve population genetics, conservation genetics, speciation and molecular evolution.

Sexual Selection, Mating Patterns, and Gamete Competition in Seahorses and Pipefishes: The fish family Syngnathidae includes about 35 species of seahorses, 180 species of pipefishes and two species of sea dragons. All of these species display male pregnancy. Females transfer the eggs to the male’s body, and the male carries the developing young until they hatch. Male pregnancy is interesting from a sexual selection standpoint, because the potential reproductive rates of males can be reduced so much that they become a limiting resource for reproduction. This situation results in a reversal in the direction of sexual selection with females competing among themselves for access to receptive males. Consequently, in some species of pipefish, ornaments and other traits involved in mate acquisition evolve in females, a reversal of the usual situation in which such traits evolve in the males alone. Pipefish and their relatives thus provide a great model system in which to test theories of sexual selection. Research on this topic in the Jones lab is concerned with the use of molecular markers (usually microsatellite markers) to characterize patterns of sexual selection in natural populations with an emphasis on current controversial theories relating to mating behavior to sexual selection.

The Evolution of Male Pregnancy and the Brood Pouch: Another major project in the Jones lab is concerned with the evolution of the major transition from males defending eggs in a nest to the male actually carrying the eggs within a specialized structure on his body. Seahorses and some of their relatives possess a brood pouch, and this structure is not seen outside of the family Syngnathidae. This structure is clearly a major morphological innovation that has had far reaching consequences with respect to the evolution and ecology of pipefishes and seahorses. The question is how such a structure originates during the course of evolution. We are using a combination of molecular techniques, including subtraction libraries and microarrays, to identify the genes involved in male pregnancy. Detailed analyses of these particular male-pregnancy genes, as well as comparative studies among species with different types of brood pouches, will shed light on the origin of the amazing phenomenon of male pregnancy and will contribute to our general understanding of the evolution of morphological innovations.

Kvarnemo, C., G. I. Moore, and A. G. Jones. 2007. Sexually selected females in the monogamous Western Australian seahorse, Hippocampus subelongatus. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 274:521-525.

Jones, A. G., S. J. Arnold, and R. Bürger. 2007. The mutation matrix and the evolution of evolvability. Evolution 61:727-745.

Mobley, K. B. and A. G. Jones. 2007. Geographic variation in the mating system of the dusky pipefish, Syngnathus floridae. Molecular Ecology 16:2596-2606.

Hoffman, E. A., K. B. Mobley, and A. G. Jones. 2006. Male pregnancy and the evolution of body segmentation in seahorses and pipefishes. Evolution 60:404-410.

Hoffman, E. A., F. W. Schueler, A. G. Jones, and M. S. Blouin. 2006. An analysis of selection on a color polymorphism in the northern leopard frog (Rana pipiens). Molecular Ecology 15:2627-2641.

Harlin-Cognato, A., E. A. Hoffman, and A. G. Jones. 2006. Gene co-option without duplication during the evolution of a male pregnancy gene in pipefish. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103:19407-19412.

Jones, A. G., G. Rosenqvist, A. Berglund, and J. C. Avise. 2005. The measurement of sexual selection using Bateman's principles: an experimental test in the sex-role-reversed pipefish Syngnathus typhle . Integrative and Comparative Biology , in press.

Hoffman, E. A., N. Kolm, A. Berglund, J. R. Arguello, and A. G. Jones. 2005. Genetic structure in the coral-reef associated Bangaii cardinalfish, Pterapogon kauderni . Molecular Ecology 14:1367-1375 .

Kolm, N., E. A. Hoffman, J. Olsson, A. Berglund, and A. G. Jones. 2005. Group stability and homing behaviour but no kin group structures in a coral reef fish. Behavioral Ecology 16:521-527 .

Adams, E. A., A. G. Jones, and S. J. Arnold. 2005. Multiple paternity in a natural population of a salamander with long-term sperm storage. Molecular Ecology 14:1803-1810 .

Jones, A. G. 2005. GERUD2.0: A computer program for the reconstruction of parental genotypes from progeny arrays with known or unknown parents. Molecular Ecology Notes 5:708-711.

Pampoulie, C., E. Gysels, B. Hellemans, G. E. Maes, V. Leentjes, A. G. Jones, and F. A. M. Volckaert. 2004. Evidence for fine scale genetic structure and estuarine colonisation in a high gene flow marine goby ( Pomatoschistus minutus ). Heredity 92:434-445.

Watts, R. A., C. A. Palmer, R. C. Feldhoff, P. W. Feldhoff, L. D. Houck, A. G. Jones, M. E. Pfrender, S. M. Rollman, and S. J. Arnold. 2004. Discordant modes of evolution at different levels in a pheromone signaling system. Molecular Biology and Evolution 21:1032-1041.

Hoffman, E. A., J. R. Arguello, N. Kolm, A. Berglund, and A. G. Jones. 2004. Eleven polymorphic microsatellite loci in a coral reef fish, Pterapogon kauderni . Molecular Ecology Notes 4:342-344.

Jones, A. G., S. J. Arnold, and R. Bürger. 2004. Evolution and stability of the G-matrix under a moving optimum. Evolution 58:1639-1654.

Jones, A. G., J. R. Arguello, and S. J. Arnold. 2004. Molecular parentage analysis in experimental newt populations: the response of mating system measures to variation in the operational sex ratio. The American Naturalist 164:444-456.

Jones, A. G. 2004. Male pregnancy and the formation of seahorse species. The Biologist 51:216-221.

Jones, A. G., G. I. Moore, C. Kvarnemo, D. Walker, and J. C. Avise. 2003. Sympatric speciation as a consequence of male pregnancy in seahorses. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 100:6598-6603.

Jones, A. G., S. J. Arnold, and R. Bürger. 2003. Stability of the G -matrix in a population experiencing stabilizing selection, pleiotropic mutation, and genetic drift. Evolution 57:1747-1760.

Jones, A. G. and W. R. Ardren. 2003. Methods of parentage analysis in natural populations. Molecular Ecology 12:2511-2523.

Jones, A. G., E. M. Adams, and S. J. Arnold. 2002. Topping off: a mechanism of first-male sperm precedence in a vertebrate. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 99:2078-2081.

Jones, A. G. 2002. The evolution of alternative cryptic female choice strategies in age-structured populations. Evolution 56: 2530-2536.

Jones, A. G., J. R. Arguello, and S. J. Arnold. 2002. Validation of Bateman's principles: a genetic study of mating patterns and sexual selection in newts. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences 269:2533-2539.

Avise, J. C., A. G. Jones, D. Walker, J. A. DeWoody, and collaborators. 2002. Genetic mating systems and reproductive natural histories of fishes: Lessons for ecology and evolution. Annual Review of Genetics 36:19-45.