Zoology staff directory
Peter Foster
Position: Molecular Biology Computing Officer
Department: Zoology
Section: Biometry & Molecular Computing Research
Contact details: - email
Research interests
The process of molecular evolution can differ in different genes and in different lineages. I have developed likelihood models which can accommodate these differences. These models are useful in both maximum likelihood and Bayesian phylogenetic analyses.
Current activities
- Develop software for heterogeneous models of molecular sequences.
- Examine the feasibility of a phylogenomics approach to the systematics of the Coleoptera.
- Examine early eukaryote evolution, in collaboration with Cymon Cox, Martin Embley, and Robert Hirt.
Employment history
| 1997 - 1999 | Smithsonian Institution - Molecular Systematics Fellow |
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| 1999 - present | Natural History Museum - Molecular Biology Computing Officer |
Higher education
| 1997 | Ottawa University - PhD |
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Publications
Embley T M, Van Der Giezen M, Horner D S, Dyal P L, & Foster P (2003) Mitochondria and hydrogenosomes are two forms of the same fundamental organelle. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 358: 191-203
Theodorides K, De Riva A, Gomez-Zurita J, FOSTER P G & Vogler A P (2002) Comparison of EST libraries from seven beetle species: towards a framework for phylogenomics of the Coleoptera. Insect Mol. Biol. 11: 467-475.
Wilkinson M, Peres-Neto P R, FOSTER P G & Moncrieff C B (2002) Type I error rates of the parsimony PTP test. Syst Biol. 51: 524-527.
Sallum M A M, Schultz T R, FOSTER P G, Aronstein K, Wirtz R A & Wilkerson R C (2002) Phylogeny of Anophelinae (Diptera: Culicidae) based on nuclear ribosomal and mitochondrial DNA sequences. Syst Entomol. 27: 361-382.
Swofford D L, Waddell P J, Huelsenbeck J P, FOSTER P G, Lewis P O & Rogers J S (2001) Bias in phylogenetic estimation and its relevance to the choice between parsimony and likelihood methods. Syst Biol 50: 525-539
FOSTER P G & Hickey D A (1999) Compositional bias may affect both DNA-based and protein-based phylogenetic reconstructions. J Mol Evol 48: 284-290
Wilkinson M, McInerney J O, Hirt R P, Foster P G , Embley T M (2007) Of clades and clans: terms for phylogenetic relationships in unrooted trees. Trends Ecol. Evol. 22:114-5.
Carlton, J M, Hirt, R P, Silva, J C, Delcher, A L, Schatz, M, Zhao, Q, Wortman, J R, Bidwell, S L, Alsmark U C M, Besteiro, S, Sicheritz-Ponten, T, Noel, C J, Dacks, J B, Foster, P G , Simillion, C, Van de Peer, Y, Miranda-Saavedra, D, Barton, G J, Westrop, G D, Muller, S, Dessi, D, Fiori, P L, Ren, Q, Paulsen, I, Zhang, H,Bastida-Corcuera, F D, Simoes-Barbosa, A, Brown, M T, Hayes, R D, Mukherjee, M, Okumura, C Y, Schneider, R, Smith, A J, Vanacova, S, Villalvazo, M, Haas, B J, Pertea, M, Feldblyum, T V, Utterback, T R, Shu, C-L, Osoegawa, K, de Jong, P J, Hrdy, I, Horvathova, L, Zubacova, Z, Dolezal, P, Malik, S-B, Logsdon, J M, Jr, Henze, K, Gupta, A, Wang, C C, Dunne, R L, Upcroft, J A, Upcroft, P, White, O, Salzberg, S L, Tang, P, Chiu, C-H, Lee, Y-S, Embley, T M, Coombs, G H, Mottram, J C, Tachezy, J, Fraser-Liggett, C M, and Johnson, P J (2007) Draft Genome
Sequence of the Sexually Transmitted Pathogen Trichomonas vaginalis Science 315: 207-212.
Richards, T A, Dacks, J B, Campbell, S A, Blanchard, J L, Foster, P G , Mcleod, R, and Roberts, C W (2006) Evolutionary origins of the eukaryotic shikimate pathway: gene fusions, horizontal gene transfer and endosymbiotic replacements. Eukaryotic Cell 5:1517--1531
Sallum, M A M, FOSTER, P G , Li, C, Sithiprasasna, R, Wilkerson, R C (2007) Phylogeny of the Leucosphyrus Group of Anopheles (Cellia) (Diptera: Culicidae) based on Mitochondrial Gene Sequences. Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am. 100: 27--35.
Andersson, J O, Hirt R P, Foster P G, and Roger, A J (2006) Evolution of four gene families with patchy phylogenetic
distributions: influx of genes into protist genomes. BMC Evolutionary Biology 2006, 6:27
Hughes, J, Longhorn, S J, Papadopoulou, A, Theodorides, K, de Riva, A, Mejia-Chang, M, Foster, P G, and Vogler, A P (2006) Dense taxonomic EST sampling and its applications for molecular systematics of the Coleoptera (beetles). Mol. Biol. Evol. 23: 268--278.
Wilkerson, R C, Foster, P G, Li, C, and Sallum, M A M (2005). Molecular Phylogeny of Neotropical Anopheles (Nyssorhynchus) albitarsis Species Complex (Diptera: Culicidae). Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am. 98(6): 918--925.
Hampl V, Horner D S, Dyal P, Kulda J, Flegr J, Foster P G and Embley T M (2005) Inference of the phylogenetic position of oxymonads based on 9 genes: Support for monophyly of Metamonada and Excavata. Mol. Biol. Evol. 22: 2508 - 2518.
Loftus B, Anderson I, Davies R, Alsmark C M, Samuelson J, Amedeo P, Roncaglia P, Berriman M, Hirt R P, Mann B J, Nozaki T, Suh B, Pop M, Duchene M, Ackers J, Tannich E, Leippe M, Hofer M, Bruchhaus I, Willhoeft U, Bhattacharya A, Chillingworth T, Churcher C, Hance Z, Harris B, Harris D, Jagels K, Moule S, Mungall K, Ormond D, Squares R, Whitehead S, Quail M A, Rabbinowitsch E, Norbertczak H, Price C, Wang Z, Guilln N, Gilchrist C, Stroup S E, Bhattacharya S, Lohia A, Foster P G, Sicheritz-Ponten T, Weber C, Singh U, Mukherjee C, El-Sayed N M, Petri W A Jnr, Clark C G, Embley T M, Barrell B, Fraser C M, Hall N (2005) The genome of the protist parasite Entamoeba histolyica. Nature 433: 865--868.
Hrdy, I, Hirt, R P, Dolezal, P, Bardonov, L, Foster, P G, Tachezy J, and Embley, T M (2004) Trichomonas hydrogenosomes contain the NADH dehydrogenase module of mitochondrial complex I. Nature 434: 29--31. Discussed in ``News and Views'' MW Gray (2005) The hydrogenosome's murky past. Nature 434: 29-31.
Foster, P G (2004) Modeling compositional heterogeneity. Syst Biol 53, 485--495.
Santos C L, Sallum M A, Foster P G, Rocco I M (2004) Molecular analysis of the dengue virus type 1 and 2 in Brazil based on sequences of the genomic envelope-nonstructural protein 1 junction region. Rev Inst Med Trop Sao Paulo 46(3):145-52.