Jennifer Jo Wernegreen | Scholars@Duke

Jennifer Jo Wernegreen
Lee Hill Snowdon Associate Professor

Research in our lab centers on environmental and evolutionary genomics, primarily in bacteria. Broadly, our group explores mechanisms shaping genetic and functional variation in microbes that play important roles in the natural environment. Much of our work integrates evolutionary, population genetic, computational, and molecular approaches to clarify how bacterial genomes change over time. Among these studies, we are exploring how ecological interactions – such as symbiosis - influence genome content and architecture of the species involved. Conversely, we also explore how genomic alterations can impact microbial functions and interactions. As models to link genomics and environmental biology, we largely focus on mutualistic microbes, including bacteria that supply essential nutrients to invertebrate hosts.

Current Appointments & Affiliations

Lee Hill Snowdon Associate Professor, Environmental Sciences and Policy, Nicholas School of the Environment 2019 - 2024
Associate Professor of Environmental and Evolutionary Genomics in the Division of Environmental Sciences and Policy, Environmental Sciences and Policy, Nicholas School of the Environment 2010

Contact Information

3102 Grainger Hall, Duke Univ., 9 Circuit Drive, Durham, NC 27708
3102 Grainger Hall, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708
j.wernegreen@duke.edu (919) 681-0331
Website

Background
Education, Training, & Certifications
- Ph.D., Yale University 1998
Duke Appointment History
- Associate Professor in the Department of Biology, Biology, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2014 - 2018
- Investigator in the Institute for Genome Scieces & Policy, Institutes and Centers, School of Medicine 2010 - 2014
Recognition
In the News
- MAY 7, 2019
  
  Duke Adds 21 Faculty to Distinguished Faculty Rank
Expertise
Subject Headings
Global Scholarship
- Research
  - United States of America (Country)
Research
Selected Grants
- Genetic and Genomics Training Grant awarded by National Institutes of Health 2020 - 2025
- Collaborative Research: Camponotine Ants and their Little Helpers: Phylogenomics of a Hyperdiverse Insect Clade and its Bacterial Endosymbionts (CAnBE) awarded by National Science Foundation 2019 - 2023
- Preparing Genetic Counselors for Genomic Medicine Research awarded by National Institutes of Health 2017 - 2022
- Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Training Program awarded by National Institutes of Health 2005 - 2021
- Genetics Training Grant awarded by National Institutes of Health 1979 - 2020
- How Responsive are Bacterial Endosymbionts to Physiological and Eological Variation in Their Ant Hosts? awarded by National Science Foundation 2010 - 2014
- Mechanisms and Consequences of Deleterious Evolution in Bacteria awarded by National Institutes of Health 2001 - 2013
- Illumina Hi-Seq 2000 Sequencing System awarded by National Institutes of Health 2012 - 2013
Publications & Artistic Works
Selected Publications
- Academic Articles
  - Brown, Bryan P., and Jennifer J. Wernegreen. “Genomic erosion and extensive horizontal gene transfer in gut-associated Acetobacteraceae.” Bmc Genomics 20, no. 1 (June 10, 2019): 472. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-019-5844-5.
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  - Wernegreen, Jennifer J. “In it for the long haul: evolutionary consequences of persistent endosymbiosis.” Current Opinion in Genetics & Development 47 (December 2017): 83–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gde.2017.08.006.
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  - Wernegreen, Jennifer J. “Ancient bacterial endosymbionts of insects: Genomes as sources of insight and springboards for inquiry.” Experimental Cell Research 358, no. 2 (September 2017): 427–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yexcr.2017.04.028.
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  - Brown, Bryan P., and Jennifer J. Wernegreen. “Deep divergence and rapid evolutionary rates in gut-associated Acetobacteraceae of ants.” Bmc Microbiology 16, no. 1 (July 11, 2016): 140. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12866-016-0721-8.
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  - Wernegreen, Jennifer J. “Endosymbiont evolution: predictions from theory and surprises from genomes.” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1360 (December 2015): 16–35. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.12740.
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  - Yung, Cheuk-Man, Marissa K. Vereen, Amy Herbert, Katherine M. Davis, Jiayu Yang, Agata Kantorowska, Christopher S. Ward, Jennifer J. Wernegreen, Zackary I. Johnson, and Dana E. Hunt. “Thermally adaptive tradeoffs in closely related marine bacterial strains.” Environ Microbiol 17, no. 7 (July 2015): 2421–29. https://doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.12714.
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  - Williams, Laura E., and Jennifer J. Wernegreen. “Genome evolution in an ancient bacteria-ant symbiosis: parallel gene loss among Blochmannia spanning the origin of the ant tribe Camponotini.” Peerj 3 (January 2015): e881. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.881.
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  - Fan, Yongliang, and Jennifer J. Wernegreen. “Can't take the heat: high temperature depletes bacterial endosymbionts of ants.” Microbial Ecology 66, no. 3 (October 2013): 727–33. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-013-0264-6.
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  - Wernegreen, Jennifer J. “First impressions in a glowing host-microbe partnership.” Cell Host & Microbe 14, no. 2 (August 2013): 121–23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chom.2013.07.015.
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  - McFall-Ngai, Margaret, Michael G. Hadfield, Thomas C. G. Bosch, Hannah V. Carey, Tomislav Domazet-Lošo, Angela E. Douglas, Nicole Dubilier, et al. “Animals in a bacterial world, a new imperative for the life sciences.” Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 110, no. 9 (February 26, 2013): 3229–36. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1218525110.
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  - Fan, Yongliang, J Will Thompson, Laura G. Dubois, M Arthur Moseley, and Jennifer J. Wernegreen. “Proteomic analysis of an unculturable bacterial endosymbiont (Blochmannia) reveals high abundance of chaperonins and biosynthetic enzymes.” J Proteome Res 12, no. 2 (February 1, 2013): 704–18. https://doi.org/10.1021/pr3007842.
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  - Williams, Laura E., and Jennifer J. Wernegreen. “Sequence context of indel mutations and their effect on protein evolution in a bacterial endosymbiont.” Genome Biology and Evolution 5, no. 3 (January 2013): 599–605. https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evt033.
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  - Wernegreen, Jennifer J. “Strategies of genomic integration within insect-bacterial mutualisms.” The Biological Bulletin 223, no. 1 (August 2012): 112–22. https://doi.org/10.1086/bblv223n1p112.
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  - Wernegreen, Jennifer J. “Endosymbiosis.” Current Biology : Cb 22, no. 14 (July 2012): R555–61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2012.06.010.
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  - Wernegreen, Jennifer J. “Mutualism meltdown in insects: bacteria constrain thermal adaptation.” Current Opinion in Microbiology 15, no. 3 (June 2012): 255–62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mib.2012.02.001.
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  - Williams, Laura E., and Jennifer J. Wernegreen. “Purifying selection, sequence composition, and context-specific indel mutations shape intraspecific variation in a bacterial endosymbiont.” Genome Biology and Evolution 4, no. 1 (January 2012): 44–51. https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evr128.
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  - Wernegreen, Jennifer J. “Reduced selective constraint in endosymbionts: elevation in radical amino acid replacements occurs genome-wide.” Plos One 6, no. 12 (January 2011): e28905. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0028905.
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  - Williams, Laura E., and Jennifer J. Wernegreen. “Unprecedented loss of ammonia assimilation capability in a urease-encoding bacterial mutualist.” Bmc Genomics 11 (December 2, 2010): 687. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2164-11-687.
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  - Bordenstein, S. R., C. Brothers, G. Wolfe, M. Bahr, R. L. Minckley, M. E. Clark, J. J. Wernegreen, W. S. Reznikoff, and J. H. Werren. “Using the Wolbachia bacterial symbiont to teach Inquiry-based science: A high school laboratory series.” American Biology Teacher 72, no. 8 (October 1, 2010): 478–83. https://doi.org/10.1525/abt.2010.72.8.3.
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  - Wernegreen, Jennifer J., Seth N. Kauppinen, and Patrick H. Degnan. “Slip into something more functional: selection maintains ancient frameshifts in homopolymeric sequences.” Molecular Biology and Evolution 27, no. 4 (April 2010): 833–39. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msp290.
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  - Wernegreen, Jennifer J., Seth N. Kauppinen, Seán G. Brady, and Philip S. Ward. “One nutritional symbiosis begat another: phylogenetic evidence that the ant tribe Camponotini acquired Blochmannia by tending sap-feeding insects.” Bmc Evolutionary Biology 9 (December 16, 2009): 292. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2148-9-292.
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  - Wernegreen, Jennifer J., and Diana E. Wheeler. “Remaining flexible in old alliances: functional plasticity in constrained mutualisms.” Dna and Cell Biology 28, no. 8 (August 2009): 371–82. https://doi.org/10.1089/dna.2009.0872.
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  - Tamas, Ivica, Jennifer J. Wernegreen, Björn Nystedt, Seth N. Kauppinen, Alistair C. Darby, Laura Gomez-Valero, Daniel Lundin, Anthony M. Poole, and Siv G. E. Andersson. “Endosymbiont gene functions impaired and rescued by polymerase infidelity at poly(A) tracts.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 105, no. 39 (September 24, 2008): 14934–39. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0806554105.
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  - Paraskevopoulos, Charalampos, Seth R. Bordenstein, Jennifer J. Wernegreen, John H. Werren, and Kostas Bourtzis. “Toward a Wolbachia multilocus sequence typing system: discrimination of Wolbachia strains present in Drosophila species.” Current Microbiology 53, no. 5 (November 2006): 388–95. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-006-0054-1.
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  - Bordenstein, Seth R., Michelle L. Marshall, Adam J. Fry, Ulandt Kim, and Jennifer J. Wernegreen. “The tripartite associations between bacteriophage, Wolbachia, and arthropods.” Plos Pathogens 2, no. 5 (May 19, 2006): e43. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.0020043.
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  - Baldo, Laura, Seth Bordenstein, Jennifer J. Wernegreen, and John H. Werren. “Widespread recombination throughout Wolbachia genomes.” Molecular Biology and Evolution 23, no. 2 (February 2006): 437–49. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msj049.
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  - Bordenstein, S. R., M. L. Marshall, A. J. Fry, U. Kim, and J. J. Wernegreen. “The tripartite associations between bacteriophage, Wolbachia, and arthropods.” Plos Pathogens 2, no. 5 (2006): 384–93. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.0020043.
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  - Bordenstein, Seth R., Michelle L. Marshall, Adam J. Fry, Ulandt Kim, and Jennifer J. Wernegreen. “Correction: The Tripartite Associations between Bacteriophage, Wolbachia, and Arthropods.” Plos Pathogens 2, no. 10 (2006): e106–e106. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.0020106.
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  - Casiraghi, M., S. R. Bordenstein, L. Baldo, N. Lo, T. Beninati, J. J. Wernegreen, J. H. Werren, and C. Bandi. “Phylogeny of Wolbachia pipientis based on gltA, groEL and ftsZ gene sequences: clustering of arthropod and nematode symbionts in the F supergroup, and evidence for further diversity in the Wolbachia tree.” Microbiology (Reading, England) 151, no. Pt 12 (December 2005): 4015–22. https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.28313-0.
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  - Wernegreen, Jennifer J. “For better or worse: genomic consequences of intracellular mutualism and parasitism.” Current Opinion in Genetics & Development 15, no. 6 (December 2005): 572–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gde.2005.09.013.
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  - Degnan, Patrick H., Adam B. Lazarus, and Jennifer J. Wernegreen. “Genome sequence of Blochmannia pennsylvanicus indicates parallel evolutionary trends among bacterial mutualists of insects.” Genome Research 15, no. 8 (August 2005): 1023–33. https://doi.org/10.1101/gr.3771305.
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  - Fry, Adam J., and Jennifer J. Wernegreen. “The roles of positive and negative selection in the molecular evolution of insect endosymbionts.” Gene 355 (August 2005): 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gene.2005.05.021.
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  - Schaber, Jörg, Claude Rispe, Jennifer Wernegreen, Andreas Buness, François Delmotte, Francisco J. Silva, and Andrés Moya. “Gene expression levels influence amino acid usage and evolutionary rates in endosymbiotic bacteria.” Gene 352 (June 2005): 109–17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gene.2005.04.003.
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  - Herbeck, Joshua T., Patrick H. Degnan, and Jennifer J. Wernegreen. “Nonhomogeneous model of sequence evolution indicates independent origins of primary endosymbionts within the enterobacteriales (gamma-Proteobacteria).” Molecular Biology and Evolution 22, no. 3 (March 2005): 520–32. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msi036.
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  - Wernegreen, Jennifer J., and Daniel J. Funk. “Mutation exposed: a neutral explanation for extreme base composition of an endosymbiont genome.” Journal of Molecular Evolution 59, no. 6 (December 2004): 849–58. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00239-003-0192-z.
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  - Bordenstein, Seth R., and Jennifer J. Wernegreen. “Bacteriophage flux in endosymbionts (Wolbachia): infection frequency, lateral transfer, and recombination rates.” Molecular Biology and Evolution 21, no. 10 (October 2004): 1981–91. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msh211.
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  - Wernegreen, Jennifer J. “Endosymbiosis: lessons in conflict resolution.” Plos Biology 2, no. 3 (March 16, 2004): E68. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0020068.
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  - Degnan, Patrick H., Adam B. Lazarus, Chad D. Brock, and Jennifer J. Wernegreen. “Host-symbiont stability and fast evolutionary rates in an ant-bacterium association: cospeciation of camponotus species and their endosymbionts, candidatus blochmannia.” Systematic Biology 53, no. 1 (February 2004): 95–110. https://doi.org/10.1080/10635150490264842.
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  - Herbeck, Joshua T., Daniel J. Funk, Patrick H. Degnan, and Jennifer J. Wernegreen. “A conservative test of genetic drift in the endosymbiotic bacterium Buchnera: slightly deleterious mutations in the chaperonin groEL.” Genetics 165, no. 4 (December 2003): 1651–60.
  - Herbeck, Joshua T., Dennis P. Wall, and Jennifer J. Wernegreen. “Gene expression level influences amino acid usage, but not codon usage, in the tsetse fly endosymbiont Wigglesworthia.” Microbiology (Reading, England) 149, no. Pt 9 (September 2003): 2585–96. https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.26381-0.
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  - Wernegreen, Jennifer J., Patrick H. Degnan, Adam B. Lazarus, Carmen Palacios, and Seth R. Bordenstein. “Genome evolution in an insect cell: distinct features of an ant-bacterial partnership.” The Biological Bulletin 204, no. 2 (April 2003): 221–31. https://doi.org/10.2307/1543563.
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  - Wernegreen, Jennifer J. “Genome evolution in bacterial endosymbionts of insects.” Nature Reviews. Genetics 3, no. 11 (November 2002): 850–61. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg931.
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  - Palacios, Carmen, and Jennifer J. Wernegreen. “A strong effect of AT mutational bias on amino acid usage in Buchnera is mitigated at high-expression genes.” Molecular Biology and Evolution 19, no. 9 (September 2002): 1575–84. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.molbev.a004219.
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  - Wernegreen, J. J., Adam B. Lazarus, and Patrick H. Degnan. “Small genome of Candidatus Blochmannia, the bacterial endosymbiont of Camponotus, implies irreversible specialization to an intracellular lifestyle.” Microbiology (Reading, England) 148, no. Pt 8 (August 2002): 2551–56. https://doi.org/10.1099/00221287-148-8-2551.
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  - Tamas, Ivica, Lisa Klasson, Björn Canbäck, A Kristina Näslund, Ann-Sofie Eriksson, Jennifer J. Wernegreen, Jonas P. Sandström, Nancy A. Moran, and Siv G. E. Andersson. “50 million years of genomic stasis in endosymbiotic bacteria.” Science (New York, N.Y.) 296, no. 5577 (June 2002): 2376–79. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1071278.
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  - Wernegreen, J. J., A. B. Lazarus, and P. H. Degnan. “Small genome of Candidatus Blochmannia, the bacterial endosymbiont of Camponotus, implies irreversible specialization to an intracellular lifestyle.” Microbiology 148, no. 8 (January 1, 2002): 2551–56. https://doi.org/10.1099/00221287-148-8-2551.
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  - Wernegreen, J. J., A. O. Richardson, and N. A. Moran. “Parallel acceleration of evolutionary rates in symbiont genes underlying host nutrition.” Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 19, no. 3 (June 2001): 479–85. https://doi.org/10.1006/mpev.2001.0929.
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  - Funk, D. J., J. J. Wernegreen, and N. A. Moran. “Intraspecific variation in symbiont genomes: bottlenecks and the aphid-buchnera association.” Genetics 157, no. 2 (February 2001): 477–89.
  - Wernegreen, J. J., and N. A. Moran. “Vertical transmission of biosynthetic plasmids in aphid endosymbionts (Buchnera).” Journal of Bacteriology 183, no. 2 (January 2001): 785–90. https://doi.org/10.1128/jb.183.2.785-790.2001.
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  - Funk, D. J., L. Helbling, J. J. Wernegreen, and N. A. Moran. “Intraspecific phylogenetic congruence among multiple symbiont genomes.” Proceedings. Biological Sciences 267, no. 1461 (December 2000): 2517–21. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2000.1314.
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  - Moran, N. A., and J. J. Wernegreen. “Lifestyle evolution in symbiotic bacteria: insights from genomics.” Trends in Ecology & Evolution 15, no. 8 (August 2000): 321–26. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0169-5347(00)01902-9.
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  - Wernegreen, J. J., H. Ochman, I. B. Jones, and N. A. Moran. “Decoupling of genome size and sequence divergence in a symbiotic bacterium.” Journal of Bacteriology 182, no. 13 (July 2000): 3867–69. https://doi.org/10.1128/jb.182.13.3867-3869.2000.
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  - Wernegreen, J. J., and N. A. Moran. “Decay of mutualistic potential in aphid endosymbionts through silencing of biosynthetic loci: Buchnera of Diuraphis.” Proceedings. Biological Sciences 267, no. 1451 (July 2000): 1423–31. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2000.1159.
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  - Clark, M. A., N. A. Moran, P. Baumann, and J. J. Wernegreen. “Cospeciation between bacterial endosymbionts (Buchnera) and a recent radiation of aphids (Uroleucon) and pitfalls of testing for phylogenetic congruence.” Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution 54, no. 2 (April 2000): 517–25. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0014-3820.2000.tb00054.x.
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  - Wernegreen, J. J., and M. A. Riley. “Comparison of the evolutionary dynamics of symbiotic and housekeeping loci: a case for the genetic coherence of rhizobial lineages.” Molecular Biology and Evolution 16, no. 1 (January 1999): 98–113. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.molbev.a026041.
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  - Wernegreen, J. J., and N. A. Moran. “Evidence for genetic drift in endosymbionts (Buchnera): analyses of protein-coding genes.” Molecular Biology and Evolution 16, no. 1 (January 1999): 83–97. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.molbev.a026040.
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  - Wernegreen, J. J., E. E. Harding, and M. A. Riley. “Rhizobium gone native: unexpected plasmid stability of indigenous Rhizobium leguminosarum.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 94, no. 10 (May 1997): 5483–88. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.94.10.5483.
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- Book Sections
  - Wernegreen, J. J. “Genomic signatures of intracellularity: Evolutionary patterns and paces in bacterial mutualists and parasites.” In Bacterial Pathogenomics, edited by Mark J. Pallen, K. E. Nelson, and G. M. Preston. Amer Society for Microbiology, 2007.
  - Wernegreen, J. J. “Genomic signatures of intracellularity: Evolutionary patterns and paces in bacterial mutualists and parasites.” In Bacterial Pathogenomics, edited by Mark J. Pallen, K. E. Nelson, and G. M. Preston. Amer Society for Microbiology, 2007.
Teaching & Mentoring
Recent Courses
Advising & Mentoring
- Ph.D. students:
  
  Bryan P. Brown (Environ)
  
  Jessie K. Uehling (UPGG; coadvised with R. Vilgalys)

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Education, Training, & Certifications

Duke Appointment History

In the News

Subject Headings

Global Scholarship

Research

Selected Grants

Selected Publications

Academic Articles

Book Sections

Recent Courses

Advising & Mentoring