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Maria I. Castaño
Maria I. Castaño
I’m a Colombian evolutionary biologist and Postdoctoral Scholar in the Toews Lab at The Pennsylvania State University. I'm broadly interested in how natural and sexual selection drive population differentiation and speciation in neotropical birds.
I combine behavioral experiments with pangenomic, biochemical and transcriptomic tools to explore how visual signals involved in mate choice evolve and how they help maintain reproductive isolation.
Before my PhD with Dr. Al Uy at the University of Rochester, I completed my BS at Universidad de los Andes in Colombia. Advised by Drs. Jorge Avendaño and Daniel Cadena, I studied territoriality and breeding phenology of montane birds and altitudinal patterns of avian malaria. Then, I founded my own birdwatching company Amazona Tropical Birding, a project dedicated to ethical bird tourism that supports community-based conservation in Colombia.
News
News
August 2025
Talk at the American Ornithological Society conference
Presented a talk titled "Flame-rumped Tanager Pangenome reveals the genetic architecture of carotenoid-based plumage color" at the AOS in St. Louis - Missouri!
July 2025
Talk at the Evolution conference
Presented a talk titled "Flame-rumped Tanager Pangenome reveals the genetic architecture of carotenoid-based plumage color" at Evolution in Athens - Georgia!
November 2024
Talk at the Rochester Birding Association
Was invited to give a talk "Origin or collapse of species?" at the Rochester birding association about my dissertation research and birding in Colombia. Recorded talk available for download for members here
October 2024
Brazier Howell Award for the best presentation on any topic in ornithology at AOS!
Happy to share that I won the price for the best talk at the American Ornithological Society conference with my presentiation "Does male aggression drive asymmetric introgression of a sexually selected trait across the Flame-rumped Tanager Hybrid zone?"
August 2024
Paper on the First genome assembly of the order Strepsiptera is out in Scientific data!
I assembled and annotated the first high-quality genome assembly for Strepsiptera using HiFi reads, revealing a miniature genome, rich in repetitive elements. This is the smallest insect genome reported up to date! Project done in collaboration with Dr. Floria Uy at the U of R.
January - February 2024
Field season collecting behavioral data
Had a sucsessful field season performing behavioral experiments to collect data for my dissertation! Here we documented aggressive responses to taxidermic mounts to understand competitive interactions between males in the Flame-rumped Tanager hybrid zone.
August 2022 - 2023
American Association of University Woman (AAUW) international fellowship!
Extremely honored to be a AAUW fellow for the year 2022-2023 empowering woman in STEM!
Read the news piece form the University of Rochester news center about the fellowship here
July 2023
Best poster at the GLAM - evogen annual meeting!
Thrilled to share that I won best poster at the Great Lakes Annual Meeting of Evolutionary genomics presenting "Are novel carotenoid metabolism genes also involved in reproductive isolation?"
2020 - 2023
Fellowships and awards roundup!
Very grateful to have received a few fellowships and awards these past two years that supported my research!
Animal Behavior Society Student Research Grant with recognition for contributions to justice, equity diversity and inclusion (2023)
American Museum of Natural History - Frank M. Chapman Memorial Fund (2023)
American Ornithological Society - Research award (2021)
Ernst Caspari Fellowship to outstanding entering students interested in carrying out research in genetics (2020, 2021, 2022).
November 2023
Paper on the Breeding biology of the grey-browed brushfinch Arremon assimilis is out in the journal of natural history!
We report the first description of the nest and eggs of the grey browed brush-finch in the Eastern Andes of Colombia and monitored territorial couples to document the breeding phenology.
December 2022 - March 2023
Field season collecting samples from three replicate transects of the Flame-rumped Tanager hybrid zone
Had a sucsessful field season banding and collecting more than 150 blood and feather samples for my dissertation!
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