Kris Is On The Ball With Mummichog DNA

My big distraction earlier this week was having to go into municipal court Tuesday afternoon to fight a speeding ticket I got in November for allegedly driving 64 in a 50 zone. Luckily the cop didn't show and the judge dismissed the charges so I didn't have to do my latent lawyer routine. I realized later that I was the only one in court that day to address the judge as "your honor". I haven't been in court since 1978 when I was arrested in Seabrook, NH, during the mass civil disobedience protesting the Seabrook nuke. When I was arraigned at 5 in the morning for criminal trespass in Rockingham County, NH, I was also the only one to address the judge as "your honor". Maybe I should've been a lawyer after all? Gad, that's a terrible thought!

But back to fish... I met with Kris today and he showed me his work aligning mummichog DNA sequences. He (we) now have a reasonable number of individual sequences each of 272 base pairs in the cytochrome b gene. Even as a work in progress it's interesting; we have sequences of at least one individual from sites stretching from Maine down to Sapelo Island, Georgia, with concentrations in Charleston, SC; Virginia Beach, VA; Chincoteague, VA; and Falmouth, MA, as well as several sequences from Nantucket. We have a near outgroup in a sequence from a Fundulus majalis from the Florida Keys, and a far-outgroup in a Rivulus species. Even to the naked eye, looking at the sequences displayed in the software package Genious, the mummichogs are visibly different. We haven't put together a tree yet, but Kris basically swears that he'll one next Tuesday (I hope!). For May graduation he has to defend a thesis by the end of next month, so a certain deadline is a powerful motivator I hope.