Tuliana is native from Brazil and Portuguese by naturalization. She received her Bachelor’s in Biological Science from the Pontifical Catholic University of Goiásfinished in 2006. During this time, Tuliana worked in a lab of molecular genetics of rice with Dr. Claudio Brondani (Embrapa/Rice and beans) during almost her entire course, and with cytogenetic of rodents with Dr. Katia Pellegrino in the last year of the course. In the same year, Tuliana moved to Porto, Portugal, and started her Master on Biodiversity and Genetic Resources in the Research Center in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources from the University of Porto (CIBIO/UP).
In CIBIO, Tuliana met Dr. Fernando Sequeira and through him, she stars to work with amphibians from Phyllomedusa burmeisterigroup, endemic from the Atlantic forest, in collaboration with Dr. João Alexandrino and Dr. Célio Haddad in the Universidade Estadual Paulisa in Rio Claro, São Paulo, Brazil. From this meeting, Tuliana spent nine years studying the phylogeny, phylogeography, and population genetics of this amphibian group using multiple molecular markers, coupled with Ecological Niche Models for understanding the mechanisms involved in speciation process of species from Atlantic forest, finishing her PhD in 2014, in Portugal.
After that, still in CIBIO/UP working with Dr. Fernando Sequeira, Tuliana’s worked with RADseq protocol of Rhinella’s species, endemic from Amazon for a year before returning to Brazil to start her post-doctoral in University of São Paulo (USP). For her post-doc, Tuliana’s intended to work again in her native country and also work with another biodiverse group of Brazilian’s species, chosen the lizards. Nowadays, Tuliana’s is in your second year post-doc studying origin and maintenance of parthenogenetic-polyploidy lizards from Amazon from Loxopholis percarinatumcomplex, with Dr. Miguel Rodrigues in collaboration with Dr. Katia Pellegrino, her Bacharel’s mentor in Pontifical Catholic University of Goiás, now working in Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp/Diadema). Now, Tuliana’s recently joined to Dr. Matthew Fujita’s lab to go through the fascinating mitochondrial and nuclear genomic world of parthenogenetic-polyploidy species using next-generation sequence.
Ph.D., University of Porto, 2014
M.S., University of Porto
B.S., Pontifical Catholic University of Goiás, 2006
Contact:
Office: ERB 446
Lab: ERB 475
e-mail: brunestuliana(at)gmail.com
Mailing address:
Tuliana O. Brunes
Department of Biology
University of Texas at Arlington
Box 19498
Arlington, TX 76019-0498
Research Interests
Tuliana is interested in phylogeny, phylogeography, population genetics, and especially in understanding the mechanisms involved in spontaneous and non-spontaneous speciation process of amphibians and lizards from Neotropics. Additionally, she is using climatic and environmental information in Geographical Information System (GIS) frameworks in order to evaluate the influence of past habitat conditions in the present-day distribution of species, mainly focus on parthenogenetic and polyploidy taxa.
Publications
Pellegrino KCM, Brunes TO, Souza SM, Laguna MM, Ávila-Pires TCS, Hoogmoed MS, Rodrigues MT. 2018. On the distinctiveness ofAmapasaurus, its relationship with LoxopholisCope 1869, and description of a new genus for L. guianensisand L. hoogmoedi(Gymnophthalmoidea/Ecpleopodini: Squamata). Zootaxa, 4441(2): 332-346. doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.4441.2.8
Brunes TO, Thomé MTC, Alexandrino J, Haddad CFB, Sequeira F. 2015. Ancient divergence and recent population expansion in a leaf frog endemic to the southern Brazilian Atlantic forest. Organisms Diversity & Evolution, 15(4), 695-710. doi: 10.1007/s13127-015-0228-4
Brunes TO, Alexandrino J, Baêta D, Zina J, Haddad CFB, Sequeira F. 2014. Species limits, phylogeographic and hybridization patterns in Neotropical leaf frogs (Phyllomedusinae). Zoologica Scripta, 43 (6): 586-604. doi: 10.1111/zsc.12079
Brunes TO, Van de Vliet MS, Lopes S, Alexandrino J, Haddad CFB, Sequeira F. 2013. Characterization of polymorphic microsatellite markers for the Neotropical leaf-frog Phyllomedusa burmeisteriand cross-species amplification.Genetics and Molecular Research, 12: 242-247.
Fusinatto LA, Alexandrino J, Haddad CFB, Brunes TO, Rocha CF, Sequeira F. 2013. Cryptic genetic diversity is paramount in small-bodied amphibians of the genus Euparkerella(Anura: Craugastoridae) endemic to the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. PLoS One, 8(11): e79504. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0079504
Brunes TO, Sequeira F, Haddad CFB, Alexandrino J. 2010. Gene and species trees of a Neotropical group of treefrogs: genetic diversification in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest and the origin of a polyploid species. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 57(3): 1120-1133. doi: 10.1016/j.ympev.2010.08.026
Pinho C, Rocha S, Carvalho BM, Lopes S, Mourão S, Vallinoto M, Brunes TO, Haddad C, Gonçalves H, Sequeira F, Ferrand F. 2009. New primers for the amplification and sequencing of nuclear loci in a taxonomically wide set of reptiles and amphibians. Conservation Genetics Resources, 2: 181-185. doi: 10.1007/s12686-009-9126-4
Borba TCDO, Mendes CDA, Guimarães EP, Brunes TO, Fonseca JR, Brondani RV, Brondani C. 2009. Genetic variability of Brazilian rice landraces determined by SSR markers. Pesquisa Agropecuária Brasileira, 44(7): 706-712. doi: 10.1590/S0100-204X2009000700009
Brunes TO, Rangel PHN, Brondani RPV, Neto FPM, Neves PCF, Brondani C. 2007. Fluxo gênico entre o arroz vermelho e o arroz cultivado estimado por meio de marcadores microssatélites. Pesquisa Agropecuária Tropical, 37: 86-92.
Brondani C, Brondani RPV, Borba TCO, Brunes T, Rangel PHN, Guimarães EP. 2005. Microsatellite analysis of Tio Taka, the first rice commercial cultivar released from the recurrent selection breeding method. International Rice Commission Newsletter, 54: 52-62.