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Kelly Zamudio

  • Professor
  • Endowed Fellow of the Doherty Regents Chair in Molecular Biology
  • Associate Chair for Graduate Education
  • EEB Program Advisor
  • Integrative Biology
  • Texas Field Station Network
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kelly.zamudio@austin.utexas.edu
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Biography

Kelly R. Zamudio is a Professor in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of Texas at Austin and an Endowed Fellow of the Doherty Regents Chair in Molecular Biology.  She received her B.A. from UC. Berkeley in Zoology in 1991, her Ph.D. from University of Washington, Seattle, in 1996, and was an NSF post-doctoral fellow at the Museum of Vertebrate Biology at UC Berkeley from 1997-1999. She worked at Cornell from 1999-2021 where she received tenure and became a Distinguished Professor in the College of Arts and Sciences. Her research focuses on the origin and maintenance of vertebrate biodiversity (especially reptiles and amphibians). Her lab integrates field research in population biology, demography, and habitat change with lab research on the genomic underpinnings of population diversification, speciation, and conservation genetics.

Research

My research interests lie in the fields of population biology, population genetics, systematics, and the genetics of conservation. I am particularly interested in the links between patterns of geographic genetic differentiation and attributes of the ecology and life history of organisms such as mating systems, dispersal, and demography. In my research I combine field and laboratory (molecular) approaches to answer questions about organisms, their environments, and their histories.

My research can be divided into three broad areas of investigation: (1) studies of mating systems and sexual selection; (2) evolutionary genetics of reptiles and amphibians at the level of populations, lineages or species;and (3) application of my basic research to conservation, with emphasis on the study of population genetic consequences of anthropogenic landscape change and emergent infectious disease.

Research Areas

  • Evolution
  • Infectious Disease, Immunology and Microbiology

Fields of Interest

  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Ecology and Global Change Biology
  • Behavior

Centers and Institutes

  • Biodiversity Center

Publications

  • Selected Publications [last 5 years]

    2025

    • Ferreira, G. A., N. M. Heming, D. C. Talora, T. H. Keitt, M. Solé, K. R. Zamudio. 2025. Climate change is projected to shrink phylogenetic endemism of Neotropical frogs. Nature Communications 16: 3713.
    • Carneiro, C. M., A. Shields-Estrada, A. Boville, G. Alves-Ferreira, T. Xu, R. L. W. Arnott, C. M. Allen-Love, M. Puertas, J. J. Jacisin III, H. Chapman Tripp, E. Basham, K. R. Zamudio, A. M. Belasen. 2025. Toward a global science of conservation genomics: coldspots in genomic resources highlight a need for equitable collaborations and capacity building. Molecular Ecology: e17729.
    • Clemons, R. A., C. H. Smith, and K. R. Zamudio. 2025. Master regulatory T cell activator FOXP3 is present across Amphibia. Immunogenetics 77: 15.

    2024

    • Arnott, R. L. W., C. Bustamante Lopez, M. N. Rogers, D. R. Davis, P.S. Robinson, R. J. Kline, T. J. LaDuc, K. R. Zamudio, A. M. Belasen. 2024. Low historical prevalence of the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis in Black-spotted Newts (Notophthalmus meridionalis) from Texas, USA, and northeastern Mexico. Herpetological Review 55: 359-362.
    • De Sá, F. P., M. Akopyan, E. M. Santana, C. F. B. Haddad, K. R. Zamudio. 2024. Mitonuclear and phenotypic discordance in an Atlantic Forest frog hybrid zone. Ecology and Evolution 14: e70262.

    2023

    • Nali, R. C., K. R. Zamudio, and C. P. A. Prado. 2023. Phenotypic differentiation in populations of a gladiator tree frog: Environment, genetic drift, and sexual selection. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 139: 243-256.
    • Longo, A.V., K. R. Lips, K. R. Zamudio. 2023. Evolutionary ecology of host competence after a chytrid outbreak in a naïve amphibian community. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: 378: 20220130.
    • Zamudio, K. R. Conservation Genomics: current applications and future directions. 2023. Journal of Heredity 114: 297-299.
    • McDonald, C.A., C. G. Becker, C. Lambertini, L. F. Toledo, C. F. B. Haddad, and K. R. Zamudio. 2023. Host immune responses to enzootic and invasive pathogen lineages vary in magnitude, timing, and efficacy. Molecular Ecology 32: 2252-2270.
    • Mendoza-Henao, A. M., K. R. Zamudio, J. M. Guayasamin, M. Escalone, G. Parra-Olea. 2023. Environment rather than character displacement explains call evolution in glassfrogs. Evolution 77: 355-369.
    • Nali, R. C., K. R. Zamudio, and C. P. A. Prado. 2023. Hybridization despite elaborate reproductive behavior and female choice in Neotropical treefrogs. Integrative Zoology 18: 208-224.
    • Arcila Hernandez, L.M., C. S. Mittan, T. Lamb, K. D. Holmes, C. McDonald, K. R. Zamudio, and C. J. Ballen. 2023. Half-century of student data reveal professional impacts of a biology field course. BioScience 73: 59-67.

    2022

    • Mittan-Moreau, C.S., Kelehear, C., L. F. Toledo, J. Bacon, J. M. Guayasamin, A. Snyder, and K. R. Zamudio. 2022. Cryptic lineages and standing variation across independent cane toad introductions. Molecular Ecology 31: 6440-6456.
    • Mittan, C. S., K. R. Zamudio, M. T. C. Thomé, F. Camurugi, G. R. Colli, A. A. Garda, C. F. B. Haddad, C. P. A. Prado. 2022. Temporal and spatial diversification along the Amazonia-Cerrado transition in Neotropical treefrogs of the Boana albopunctata species group. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 175: 107579.
    • Chodkowski, N., P. M. O’Grady, C. D. Specht, K. R. Zamudio. 2022. Active Learning Strategies for Biodiversity Science. Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy,Frontiers in Education 7: 849300.
    • Belasen, A. M., I. D. Russell, K. R. Zamudio, M. C. Bletz. 2022. Endemic lineages of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis are associated with reduced chytridiomycosis-induced mortality in amphibians: evidence from a meta-analysis of experimental infection studies. Frontiers in Veterinary Medicine 9: 756686.

    2021

    • Odom, S., H. Boso, S. Bowling, S. Cotner, C. Creech, A. G. Drake, S. Eddy, S. Fagbodun, S. Hebert, A. James, J. Just, J. R. St. Juliana, M. Shuster, S. Thompson, R. Whittington, B. Wills, A. Wilson, K. R. Zamudio, M. Zhong, C. J. Ballen. 2021. Meta-analysis of gender performance gaps in undergraduate natural science courses. CBE – Life Sciences Education 20: ar40.
    • Leaché, A. D., H. R. Davis, S. Singhal, M. K. Fujita, M. Lahti, K. R. Zamudio. 2021. Phylogenomic assessment of biodiversity using a reference-based taxonomy: an example with horned lizards (Phrynosoma). Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 9: 678110.
    • Lopes, C. M., D. Baêta, A. Valentini, M. L. Lyra, A. F. Sabbag, J. L. Gasparini, T. Dejean, C. F. B. Haddad, K. R. Zamudio. 2021. Lost and found: frogs in a biodiversity hotspot rediscovered with environmental DNA. Molecular Ecology 30: 3289-3298.
    • Arcila Hernandez, L., K. R. Zamudio, A. Drake, M. Smith. 2021. Implementing team-based learning in the life sciences: A case study in an online introductory level evolution and biodiversity course. Ecology and Evolution 11: 3257-3536.
    • Lopes, C. M., D. Baêta, T. Sasso, A. Vanzetti, K. R. Zamudio, P. Taberlet, C. F. B. Haddad. 2021. Power and limitations of environmental DNA metabarcoding for surveying leaf litter eukaryotic communities. Environmental DNA 3: 528-540.
    • Camurugi, F., M. Gehara, E. M. Fonseca, K. R. Zamudio, C. F. B. Haddad, M. T. C. Thomé, C. P. A. Prado, G. R. Colli, M. F. Napoli, A. Garda. 2021. Isolation by environment and recurrent gene flow shaped the evolutionary history of a continentally distributed Neotropical treefrog. Journal of Biogeography 48:760-772.
    • Lambertini, C., C. G. Becker, A. Belasen, A. Valencia-Aguilar, C. H. L. N. de Almeida, C. M. Betancourt-Roman, D. Rodriguez, D. da Silva Leite, I. S. Oliveira, J. L. R. Gasparini, J. Ruggeri, T. Mott, T. S. Jenkinson, T. Y. James, K. R. Zamudio, L. F. Toledo. 2021. Biotic and abiotic determinants of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis infections in amphibians of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Fungal Ecology 49: 100995.
    • Shah, A. A., H. A. Woods, J. C. Havird. A. C. Encalada, A. S. Flecker, W. C. Funk, J. M. Guayasamin, B. C. Kondratieff, N. L. Poff, S. A. Thomas, K. R. Zamudio, C. K. Ghalambor. 2021. Temperature-dependence of metabolic rate in tropical and temperate aquatic insects: support for the Climate Variability Hypothesis in mayflies but not stoneflies. Global Change Biology 27: 297-311.

Awards

  • Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, October 2019.
  • Cornell Office of Inclusion and Student Engagement, Diversity and Inclusion Change Agent Award, May 2019.
  • Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow Award, Cornell University, 2018-2023.