Matt Rutter
Professor, Academic Director, Stono Preserve
Education
Ph.D. - Duke UniversityA.B. - Harvard University
Research Interests
My interests are at the interface of evolution, genomics and ecology. I use plants as my study organisms, primarily the model genetic plant Arabidopsis thaliana. Much of my recent research investigates the contribution of mutation to evolutionary processes in a variety of ecological contexts. I am also part of the unPAK project (undergraduates Phenotyping Arabidopsis knockouts) which is building a database of phenotypes of single-knockout mutants in A. thaliana.
Courses Taught
BIOL 211: Biodiversity, Ecology and Conservation BiologyBIOL 305: Genetics
BIOL 350: Evolution
EVSS 610: Environmental Biology
Honors & Awards
William V. Moore Distinguished Teacher-Scholar Award, 2022Gordon E. Jones Distinguished Achievement Award, 2022
Michael J. Auerbach Award for Excellence in Student Research Mentorship, 2020
Selected Publications
Monroe, J.G., Srikant, T., Carbonell-Bejerano, P., Becker, C., Lensink, M., Exposito-Alonso, M., Klein, M., Hildebrandt, J., Neumann, M., Kliebenstein, D. and Weng, M.L., 2022. Mutation bias reflects natural selection in Arabidopsis thaliana. Nature, 602(7895), pp.101-105.
Weng, M.L., Ågren, J., Imbert, E., Nottebrock, H., Rutter, M.T. and Fenster, C.B., 2021. Fitness effects of mutation in natural populations of Arabidopsis thaliana reveal a complex influence of local adaptation. Evolution, 75(2), pp.330-348.
Jensen-Ryan, D., Murren, C.J., Bisner, A., Rutter, M.T. and Strand, A., 2021. Engaging undergraduates in research experiences at a distance: Insights and recommendations for remote UREs. Journal of microbiology & biology education, 22(1), pp.10-1128.Rutter, M.T., Bisner, A.M., Kohler, C., Morgan, K., Musselman, O., Pickel, J., Tan, J., Yamasaki, Y., Willson, J., Callahan, H.S. and Strand, A.E., 2020. Disrupting the disruptors: the consequences of mutations in mobile elements for ecologically important life history traits. Evolutionary Ecology, 34, pp.363-377.
Rutter, M.T., Murren, C.J., Callahan, H.S., Bisner, A.M., Leebens‐Mack, J., Wolyniak, M.J. and Strand, A.E., 2019. Distributed phenomics with the un PAK project reveals the effects of mutations. The Plant Journal, 100(1), pp.199-211.
Weng, M.L., Becker, C., Hildebrandt, J., Neumann, M., Rutter, M.T., Shaw, R.G., Weigel, D. and Fenster, C.B., 2019. Fine-grained analysis of spontaneous mutation spectrum and frequency in Arabidopsis thaliana. Genetics, 211(2), pp.703-714.
Rutter, M.T., Wieckowski, Y.M., Murren, C.J. and Strand, A.E., 2017. Fitness effects of mutation: testing genetic redundancy in Arabidopsis thaliana. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 30(6), pp.1124-1135.
Henson, T.M., Cory, W. and Rutter, M.T., 2013. Extensive variation in cadmium tolerance and accumulation among populations of Chamaecrista fasciculata. PloS one, 8(5), p.e63200.
Rutter, M.T., Cross, K.V. and Van Woert, P.A., 2012. Birth, death and subfunctionalization in the Arabidopsis genome. Trends in plant science, 17(4), pp.204-212.
Valentine ME, Wolyniak MJ, Rutter MT. 2012. Extensive Phenotypic Variation among Allelic T-DNA Inserts in Arabidopsis thaliana. PLoS ONE 7(9): e44981. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0044981