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Divisions, Departments, and Degree Programs .:

Select One Anthropology Division of Biological Sciences Chemistry Communication Studies Computer Science Economics English Environmental Studies Geography Geosciences History Liberal Studies Mathematical Sciences Military Science Modern & Classical Languages & Literatures Native American Studies Philosophy Physics and Astronomy Political Science Psychology Sociology

Additional Programs .:

Select One African American Studies Asian Studies Central and Southwest Asian Studies Program Creative Writing Program Film Studies Human and Family Development Minor Intercultural Youth and Family Development Program (M.A.) Irish Studies Program International Development Studies Latin American Studies Linguistics Non-Profit Administration Minor P.E.A.S Program Pre-Engineering Pre-Law Pre-Medical Sciences Pre-Nursing Religious Studies Wildlife Biology Program Women's and Gender Studies

Projects, Centers and Institutes.:

Select One Avian Science Center Center for Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics Center for Ethics (non strictly CAS, but closely affiliated) Center for Riverine Science Flathead Lake (Yellow Bay) Biological Station (affiliated program) Institute for Medicine and Humanities (not strictly CAS, but closely affiliated) Multicultural Learning Solutions Paleontology Center Stella Duncan Memorial Research Institute Shafizadeh Rocky Mountain Center for Wood and Carbohydrate Chemistry The Writing Center

Contact: Dean Chris Comer
LA 136, Missoula, MT 59812
Telephone: 243-2632
Fax: 406-243-4076

Office Location: HEALTH SCIENCES 302
Office Telephone: (406) 243-5149
E-mail: Scott.Miller@mso.umt.edu
Website: http://dbs.umt.edu/research_labs/millerlab

Research Interests:

Our research takes an integrative approach to address central questions in microbial evolution and ecology regarding the origins, maintenance and distribution of microbial diversity, with a particular emphasis on the evolution of environmental tolerance in cyanobacteria.  How do microorganisms adapt to novel environments?  Does adaptation come with evolutionary costs?  How do evolutionary processes, environmental variation and geography contribute to the patterns of microbial diversity observed at local, regional and global scales?  Current projects investigate: (1) the genetic basis of temperature adaptation in a group of hot spring cyanobacteria (Synechococcus) living at or near the thermal limit for photosynthetic life; (2) the population genomics of niche differentiation in ecological specialist lineages of the cyanobacterium Mastigocladus laminosus; (3) the roles of competition and character displacement for shaping the realized distributions of photosynthetic bacteria along hot spring thermal gradients; and (4) the molecular evolution of a novel cyanobacterial light harvesting system based on chlorophyll d.

 

Selected Publications:

Miller, S. R., A. L. Strong, K. L. Jones and M. C. Ungerer. 2009. Barcoded pyrosequencing reveals shared bacterial community properties along two alkaline hot spring temperature gradients in Yellowstone National Park. Appl. Environ. Microbiol., in press.

 

Miller, S. R., C. Williams, A. L. Strong and D. Carvey.  2009. Ecological specialization in a spatially structured population of the thermophilic cyanobacterum Mastigocladus laminosus. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 75:729-734.

 

Miller, S. R.  Population genetics of cyanobacteria. In: Microbial Population Genetics (J. Xu, ed., Horizon Press). In press.

Miller, S. R., R. W. Castenholz and D. Pedersen. 2007. Phylogeography of the thermophilic cyanobacterium Mastigocladus laminosus.  Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 73:4751-4759.

 

Miller, S. R., M. D. Purugganan and S. E. Curtis. 2006.  Molecular population genetics and phenotypic diversification of two populations of the thermophilic cyanobacterium Mastigocladus laminosus. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 72:2793-2800.

Ley, R. E., J. K. Harris, J. Wilcox, J. R. Spear, S. R. Miller, B. M. Bebout, J. A. Maresca, D. A. Bryant, M. L. Sogin and N. R. Pace. 2006. Unexpected diversity and complexity of the Guerrero Negro hypersaline microbial mat. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 72:3685-3695.

Miller, S. R., S. Augustine, T. Le Olson, R. E. Blankenship, J. Selker, and A. M. Wood.  2005. Discovery of a free-living, chlorophyll-d producing cyanobacterium with a hybrid proteobacterial/cyanobacterial SSU rRNA gene. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 102:850-855.

Miller, S. R. and B. M. Bebout. 2004. Variation in sulfide tolerance of photosystem II in phylogenetically diverse cyanobacteria from sulfidic habitats. Appl. Env. Microbiol. 70:736-744.

Miller, S. R.  2004. Testing for evolutionary correlations in microbiology using phylogenetic generalized least squares.  Pp. 341-354, In: Environmental Microbiology (F. Spencer and A. Ragout de Spencer, eds.), Humana Press, Totowa, N.J..

Miller, S. R.  2003. Evidence for the adaptive evolution of the carbon fixation gene rbcL during diversification in temperature tolerance of a clade of hot spring cyanobacteria.  Mol. Ecol. 12:1237-1246.