Karen Shih
@karenyshih.bsky.social
Stanford Biology PhD candidate in Dmitri Petrov and Monte Winslow's lab, interested in cancer evolution, omics, data analysis and ML
https://kyshih.github.io/karenshih/
https://kyshih.github.io/karenshih/
Reposted by Karen Shih
Thrilled to finally share the magnum opus of my PhD that focuses on the genetic basis of evolutionary change! Specifically, we know we can map the genetic basis of a trait, but can we tell which genes will underlie the trait shift when it evolves? doi.org/10.1101/2025...
High-resolution mapping of a rapidly evolving complex trait reveals genotype-phenotype stability and an unpredictable genetic architecture of adaptation
The extent to which adaptation can be predicted, particularly for traits with complex genetic bases, is unknown. Here, we leveraged a model complex trait, model species, and high-powered longitudinal ...
doi.org
November 18, 2025 at 12:15 AM
Thrilled to finally share the magnum opus of my PhD that focuses on the genetic basis of evolutionary change! Specifically, we know we can map the genetic basis of a trait, but can we tell which genes will underlie the trait shift when it evolves? doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Reposted by Karen Shih
Complex microbial communities, like the human gut microbiome, can harbor extensive strain-level diversity, with strains of the same species from different hosts differing by ~10k mutations. However, the fitness consequences of this diversity in community contexts are not well understood. (2/n)
November 11, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Complex microbial communities, like the human gut microbiome, can harbor extensive strain-level diversity, with strains of the same species from different hosts differing by ~10k mutations. However, the fitness consequences of this diversity in community contexts are not well understood. (2/n)
Reposted by Karen Shih
One of the most exciting works of my career, years in the making. We used high-throughput precision genome editing to test the fitness effects of thousands of natural variants. Our findings challenge the long-held assumption that common variants are inconsequential.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Massively parallel interrogation of the fitness of natural variants in ancient signaling pathways reveals pervasive local adaptation
The nature of standing genetic variation remains a central debate in population genetics, with differing perspectives on whether common variants are almost always neutral as suggested by neutral and n...
www.biorxiv.org
October 22, 2025 at 5:46 PM
One of the most exciting works of my career, years in the making. We used high-throughput precision genome editing to test the fitness effects of thousands of natural variants. Our findings challenge the long-held assumption that common variants are inconsequential.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Excited to share this amazing paper on how beneficial dominance reversal maintains large-effect functional variation, authored by a star postdoc from the Petrov lab! Huge congrats to Marianna and all the authors! 🎉👏
How is functional variation at large-effect loci maintained in natural populations?
Thrilled to share our work showing how beneficial dominance reversal helps fruit flies maintain a resistance polymorphism as selection varies in their environment! A thread 🧵 1/n
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Thrilled to share our work showing how beneficial dominance reversal helps fruit flies maintain a resistance polymorphism as selection varies in their environment! A thread 🧵 1/n
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Dominance reversal maintains large-effect resistance polymorphism in temporally varying environments
A central challenge in evolutionary biology is to uncover mechanisms maintaining functional genetic variation1. Theory suggests that dominance reversal, whereby alleles subject to fluctuating selectio...
www.biorxiv.org
January 23, 2025 at 1:07 AM
Excited to share this amazing paper on how beneficial dominance reversal maintains large-effect functional variation, authored by a star postdoc from the Petrov lab! Huge congrats to Marianna and all the authors! 🎉👏