Faculty
Biological Sciences has more than 60 full-time faculty members, as well as more than 20 faculty with joint appointments and 15 visiting or adjunct professors. Among its many distinctions and honors, the Ph.D. program faculty includes two members of the National Academy of Sciences, four members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and 18 holders of endowed chairs and professorships.
Matthew DeanAssistant Professor of Biological Sciences Contact Information Office: RRI 304 A Phone: (213) 740-5513 E-mail: matthew.dean@usc.edu |
Education
-
B.S. (Honorary) Entomology, University of Wisconsin at Madison
(labs of Dr. Daniel K. Young and Dr. Kenneth F. Raffa), 1996 -
Ph.D. Evolutionary Genetics, University of Iowa at Iowa City
(lab of Dr. J. William O. Ballard), 2003
Postdoctoral Training
-
postdoctoral fellow, University of Arizona
(lab of Dr. Michael W. Nachman), 2004-2009
Academic Appointment, Affiliation, and Employment History
Tenure Track Appointments
- Assistant Professor, University of Southern California, 2009-
Non-Tenure Track Appointments
- Lecturer, Roosevelt University, 2003-2004
Description of Research
Summary Statement of Research Interests
The past fifteen years of genomic science has made the difficulty in linking genotype to phenotype painfully obvious. As representative genomes continue to accumulate and spawn multi-individual re-sequencing projects, it is clear that we also lack a fundamental understanding of how genetic variation modifies phenotypes. The reasons for the disconnect are many: while the genome represents a valuable biological blueprint, its correlation to phenotype is influenced by interactions at several important stages. Much of the genome is transcribed and translated into proteins. These proteins, which are often modified in complex ways, must interact properly, and these interactions can be influenced by environmental and/or epistatic input from genetic background. Furthermore, phenotypes can result from the cumulative effect of many independent genes. Moving forward during this ongoing genomics revolution, it is clear that the promise for linking genotype to phenotype, and for understanding how variation affects fitness, lies not in increased specialization of a particular field but by integration across biological disciplines.
My lab focuses on reproductive genetics using genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic data in an evolutionary, population genetic, and quantitative genetic framework. These analyses guide and are guided by laboratory experiments and field studies to measure reproductive phenotypes in the living organism. My most recent work is showing that male reproductive success is influenced not only by sperm count and sperm motility, but also by seminal fluid and its interactions with the female environment. In mice, seminal fluid appears to have strong immuno-suppressive effects, so that a male’s fertility may depend on how well he can protect his sperm (which can be viewed as a foreign body) from the female immune response.
The overriding objective in my lab is to understand the genetic basis of fitness-related traits, using the tools of bioinformatics, molecular biology, genomics, laboratory crosses, and field studies of natural populations. Fitness-related traits include any reproductive phenotypes that affect how an organism performs under natural or sexual selection.
My lab focuses on reproductive genetics using genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic data in an evolutionary, population genetic, and quantitative genetic framework. These analyses guide and are guided by laboratory experiments and field studies to measure reproductive phenotypes in the living organism. My most recent work is showing that male reproductive success is influenced not only by sperm count and sperm motility, but also by seminal fluid and its interactions with the female environment. In mice, seminal fluid appears to have strong immuno-suppressive effects, so that a male’s fertility may depend on how well he can protect his sperm (which can be viewed as a foreign body) from the female immune response.
The overriding objective in my lab is to understand the genetic basis of fitness-related traits, using the tools of bioinformatics, molecular biology, genomics, laboratory crosses, and field studies of natural populations. Fitness-related traits include any reproductive phenotypes that affect how an organism performs under natural or sexual selection.
Publications
Journal Article
- Dean, M. D., Clark, N. L., Findlay, G. D., Karn, R. C., Yi, X., Swanson, W. J., MacCoss, M. J., Nachman, M. W. (2009). Proteomics and comparative genomic investigations reveal heterogeneity in evolutionary rate of male reproductive proteins in mice (Mus domesticus). Molecular Biology and Evolution. Vol. 26, pp. 1733-1743.
- Dean, M. D., Nachman, M. W. (2009). Faster fertilization rate in conspecific versus heterospecific matings in house mice. Evolution. Vol. 63, pp. 20-28.
- Good, J. M., Dean, M. D., Nachman, M. W. (2008). A complex genetic basis to X-linked hybrid male sterility between two species of house mice. Genetics. Vol. 179, pp. 2213-2228.
- Dean, M. D., Good, J. M., Nachman, M. W. (2008). Adaptive evolution of proteins secreted during sperm maturation: an analysis of the mouse epididymal transcriptome. Molecular Biology and Evolution. Vol. 25, pp. 383-392.
- Laurie, C. C., Nickerson, D. A., Anderson, A. D., Weir, B. S., Livingston, R. J., Dean, M. D., Smith, K. L., Schadt, E. E., Nachman, M. W. (2007). Linkage disequilibrium in wild mice. PLoS Genetics. Vol. 3, pp. e144.
- Dean, M. D., Ardlie, K. G., Nachman, M. W. (2006). The frequency of multiple paternity suggests that sperm competition is common in house mice (Mus domesticus). Molecular Ecology. Vol. 15, pp. 4141-4151.
- Dean, M. D. (2006). A Wolbachia-associated fitness benefit depends on genetic background in Drosophila simulans. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London series B-Biological Sciences. Vol. 273, pp. 1415-1420.
- Dean, M. D., Ballard, J. W. (2005). High divergence among Drosophila simulans mitochondrial haplogroups arose in midst of long term purifying selection. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. Vol. 36, pp. 328-337.
- Dean, M. D., Ballard, J. W. (2004). Linking phylogenetics with population genetics to reconstruct the geographic origin of a species. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. Vol. 32, pp. 998-1009.
- Dean, M. D., Ballard, K. J., Glass, A., Ballard, J. W. (2003). Influence of two Wolbachia strains on population structure of east African Drosophila simulans. Genetics. Vol. 165, pp. 1959-1969.
- James, A. C., Dean, M. D., McMahon, M. E., Ballard, J. W. (2002). Dynamics of double and single Wolbachia infections in Drosophila simulans from New Caledonia. Heredity. Vol. 88, pp. 182-189.
- Ballard, J. W., Dean, M. D. (2001). The mitochondrial genome: mutation, selection and recombination. Current Opinion in Genetics and Development. Vol. 11, pp. 667-672.
- Dean, M. D., Ballard, J. W. (2001). Factors affecting mitochondrial DNA quality from museum preserved Drosophila simulans. Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata. Vol. 98, pp. 279-283.