Brandon Gaut

{{Short description|American evolutionary biologist and geneticist}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Brandon S. Gaut | image = | birth_name = | birth_date = <!--{{birth date |YYYY|MM|DD}}--> | birth_place = | fields = {{Plainlist| * Molecular evolution * Comparative Genomics}} | workplaces = University of California, Irvine | education = | alma_mater = University of California, Berkeley<br />University of California, Riverside | thesis_title = | thesis_url = | thesis_year = | doctoral_advisor = Michael T. Clegg | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = | notable_students = Aoife McLysaght<br />Adam Eyre-Walker | known_for = | influences = | influenced = | awards = {{Plainlist| * Sloan Foundation Young Investigator Fellowship (1995-1997) * AAAS Fellow (2008) * Genetics Society of America Mentorship Award (2025)}} | spouse = <!--(or | spouses = )--> | partner = Rebecca Gaut | children = | website = }}

'''Brandon Stuart Gaut''' is an American evolutionary biologist and geneticist who works as a Distinguished Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Irvine.<ref>{{Cite web |title=UC Irvine - Faculty Profile System |url=https://faculty.uci.edu/profile/?facultyId=4561 |access-date=2023-09-17 |website=faculty.uci.edu |language=en}}</ref>

Gaut's research focuses on the evolution of genetic variation in populations and its impact on adaptation, speciation, and the maintenance of biodiversity, as well as the evolution of transposable elements and their role in shaping genetic architecture and epigenetic state in plants.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Brandon Gaut |url=https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=1nr7TU0AAAAJ&hl=en |access-date=2023-09-17 |website=scholar.google.com}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last1=Conduct |first1=Committee on Gene Drive Research in Non-Human Organisms: Recommendations for Responsible |title=Biographical Sketches of Committee Members |date=2016-07-28 |url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK379289/ |work=Gene Drives on the Horizon: Advancing Science, Navigating Uncertainty, and Aligning Research with Public Values |access-date=2023-09-17 |publisher=National Academies Press (US) |language=en |last2=Sciences |first2=Board on Life |last3=Studies |first3=Division on Earth and Life |last4=National Academies of Sciences |first4=Engineering}}</ref>

==Education== Gaut earned his undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley in 1985 and his Ph.D. in Genetics from UC Riverside from 1988{{En dash}}1992, under the mentorship of Michael T. Clegg.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=In Evolution's Garden |url=https://www.the-scientist.com/profile/in-evolutions-garden-39237 |access-date=2023-09-17 |website=The Scientist Magazine |language=en}}</ref> He was a postdoc at NC State University in the Department of Statistics under Bruce Weir until 1995 before becoming an assistant professor at Rutgers University in 1995. He moved to UC Irvine in 1998 and was named a Distinguished professor in 2020.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Distinguished Professor – Academic Personnel |url=https://ap.uci.edu/titles-of-distinction/distinguished-professor/ |access-date=2023-09-17 |language=en-US}}</ref>

==Career== Gaut served as the president-elect, president and past-president for the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution from 2013 to 2015.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=2014-12-01 |title=SMBE Editors and Council |journal=Molecular Biology and Evolution |volume=31 |issue=12 |pages=i3 |doi=10.1093/molbev/msu015 |issn=0737-4038}}</ref> He is Editor-in-Chief for ''Molecular Biology and Evolution''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=About MBE |url=https://academic.oup.com/mbe |access-date=2023-09-17 |website=academic.oup.com}}</ref> He served administrative roles as Chair of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from 2006{{En dash}}2013<ref name=":1" /> and the Associate Dean for Research in the School of Biological Sciences from 2017{{En dash}}2022.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

Gaut was named the Professor of the Year in 2008 at UC Irvine and voted an Outstanding Professor by the senior class.<ref name=":1" /> In 2025, he was awarded the inaugural Genetics Society of America Mentorship Award.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Distinguished professor proves effective mentorship is both art and science |url=https://genestogenomes.org/distinguished-professor-proves-effective-mentorship-is-both-art-and-science/ |access-date=2025-05-27 |website=Genes to Genomes |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Genetics Society of America Mentorship Award |url=https://genetics-gsa.org/awards/gsa-mentorship-award/ |access-date=2025-05-27 |website=Genetics Society of America |language=en-US}}</ref>

== Research== Gaut's early work provided several fundamental ideas about the genetic effects of domestication on crop plants; with postdoctoral scholar Adam Eyre-Walker, he used coalescent theory-based models to establish the occurrence of genetic bottlenecks during the domestication of maize,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Buckler |first=Ed |title=Maize Domestication |url=https://www.maizegenetics.net/copy-of-hybrid-vigor-1 |access-date=2025-05-27 |website=bucklerlab |language=en}}</ref> a phenomenon which is now thought to influence the diversity and genome content of many agriculturally important species.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Meyer |first1=Rachel S. |last2=Purugganan |first2=Michael D. |date=December 2013 |title=Evolution of crop species: genetics of domestication and diversification |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/nrg3605 |journal=Nature Reviews Genetics |language=en |volume=14 |issue=12 |pages=840–852 |doi=10.1038/nrg3605 |pmid=24240513 |s2cid=529535 |issn=1471-0064|url-access=subscription }}</ref> He later adopted these models to initiate the search for genes that have been selected through the domestication process, estimating that around 1,200 maize genes (~3% of loci) were involved in its domestication.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Wright |first1=Stephen I. |last2=Bi |first2=Irie Vroh |last3=Schroeder |first3=Steve G. |last4=Yamasaki |first4=Masanori |last5=Doebley |first5=John F. |last6=McMullen |first6=Michael D. |last7=Gaut |first7=Brandon S. |date=2005-05-27 |title=The Effects of Artificial Selection on the Maize Genome |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1107891 |journal=Science |language=en |volume=308 |issue=5726 |pages=1310–1314 |doi=10.1126/science.1107891 |pmid=15919994 |s2cid=25581643 |issn=0036-8075|url-access=subscription }}</ref> This work established basic approaches that have been adopted across numerous domesticated species.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Morrell |first1=Peter L. |last2=Buckler |first2=Edward S. |last3=Ross-Ibarra |first3=Jeffrey |date=February 2012 |title=Crop genomics: advances and applications |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/nrg3097 |journal=Nature Reviews Genetics |language=en |volume=13 |issue=2 |pages=85–96 |doi=10.1038/nrg3097 |pmid=22207165 |s2cid=13358998 |issn=1471-0064|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Together with John Doebley, Gaut provided the first DNA sequence-based estimates for the time of polyploidization event in a plant,<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last1=Gaut |first1=Brandon S. |last2=Doebley |first2=John F. |date=1997-06-24 |title=DNA sequence evidence for the segmental allotetraploid origin of maize |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |language=en |volume=94 |issue=13 |pages=6809–6814 |doi=10.1073/pnas.94.13.6809 |issn=0027-8424 |pmc=21240 |pmid=11038553 |bibcode=1997PNAS...94.6809G |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last1=Force |first1=Allan |last2=Lynch |first2=Michael |last3=Pickett |first3=Bryan |last4=Amores |first4=Angel |last5=Yan |first5=Yi-lin |last6=Postlethwait |first6=John |date=1999 |title=Preservation of Duplicate Genes by Complementary, Degenerative Mutations |url=https://academic.oup.com/genetics/article/151/4/1531/6047715 |access-date=2023-09-17 |journal=Genetics |volume=151 |issue=4 |pages=1531–1545 |doi=10.1093/genetics/151.4.1531 |pmc=1460548 |pmid=10101175}}</ref> and he has contributed to basic methods used in evolutionary studies, such as the codon model of evolution.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Kosakovsky Pond |first1=Sergei |last2=Frost |first2=Simon |date=2005 |title=Not So Different After All: A Comparison of Methods for Detecting Amino Acid Sites Under Selection |url=https://academic.oup.com/mbe/article/22/5/1208/1066893/Not-So-Different-After-All-A-Comparison-of-Methods |access-date=2023-09-17 |journal=Molecular Biology and Evolution |volume=22 |issue=5 |pages=1208–1222 |doi=10.1093/molbev/msi105|pmid=15703242 }}</ref> Later he characterized important epigenetic phenomena, showing that DNA methylation of transposable elements affects gene expression on a genome-wide scale and is a component of selective load.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Hollister |first1=Jesse D. |last2=Gaut |first2=Brandon S. |date=August 2009 |title=Epigenetic silencing of transposable elements: A trade-off between reduced transposition and deleterious effects on neighboring gene expression |journal=Genome Research |language=en |volume=19 |issue=8 |pages=1419–1428 |doi=10.1101/gr.091678.109 |issn=1088-9051 |pmc=2720190 |pmid=19478138}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Choi |first1=Jae Young |last2=Lee |first2=Yuh Chwen G. |date=2020-07-16 |title=Double-edged sword: The evolutionary consequences of the epigenetic silencing of transposable elements |journal=PLOS Genetics |language=en |volume=16 |issue=7 |article-number=e1008872 |doi=10.1371/journal.pgen.1008872 |issn=1553-7404 |pmc=7365398 |pmid=32673310 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

Gaut's more recent research has focused on genome evolution in grapes, estimating the demographic history of grape domestication and showing that cultivated grapes possess an abundance of deleterious mutations in a heterozygous state compared to their wild progenitor species,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Top 10 Genomics News Stories of 2019 |url=http://www.technologynetworks.com/genomics/lists/top-10-genomics-news-stories-of-2019-328386 |access-date=2025-05-27 |website=Genomics Research from Technology Networks |language=en}}</ref> likely due to their history of clonal propagation.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Huang |first1=Xuehui |last2=Huang |first2=Sanwen |last3=Han |first3=Bin |last4=Li |first4=Jiayang |date=July 2022 |title=The integrated genomics of crop domestication and breeding |journal=Cell |volume=185 |issue=15 |pages=2828–2839 |doi=10.1016/j.cell.2022.04.036 |pmid=35643084 |s2cid=249103057 |issn=0092-8674|doi-access=free }}</ref> His lab also identified loci which may confer resistance to the agriculturally destructive bacterium ''Xylella fastidiosa''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Quinton |first=Amy M. |date=2023-06-15 |title=Study Reveals Potential Breakthrough in Grapevine Disease Resistance |url=https://www.ucdavis.edu/food/news/study-reveals-potential-breakthrough-grapevine-disease-resistance |access-date=2023-09-17 |website=UC Davis |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last1=California |first1=University of |last2=Irvine |title=Study reveals potential breakthrough in grapevine disease resistance |url=https://phys.org/news/2023-06-reveals-potential-breakthrough-grapevine-disease.html |access-date=2023-09-17 |website=phys.org |language=en}}</ref>

==Selected publications== *{{Cite journal |date=September 1994 |title=A likelihood approach for comparing synonymous and nonsynonymous nucleotide substitution rates, with application to the chloroplast genome. |journal=Molecular Biology and Evolution |doi=10.1093/oxfordjournals.molbev.a040152 |pmid=7968485 |issn=1537-1719 |last1=Muse |first1=S. V. |last2=Gaut |first2=B. S. |volume=11 |issue=5 |pages=715–724 |doi-access=free }} *{{Cite journal |last1=Doebley |first1=John F. |last2=Gaut |first2=Brandon S. |last3=Smith |first3=Bruce D. |date=December 2006 |title=The Molecular Genetics of Crop Domestication |journal=Cell |volume=127 |issue=7 |pages=1309–1321 |doi=10.1016/j.cell.2006.12.006 |pmid=17190597 |s2cid=278993 |issn=0092-8674|doi-access=free }} *{{Cite journal |last1=Gaut |first1=Brandon S. |last2=Doebley |first2=John F. |date=1997-06-24 |title=DNA sequence evidence for the segmental allotetraploid origin of maize |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |language=en |volume=94 |issue=13 |pages=6809–6814 |doi=10.1073/pnas.94.13.6809 |issn=0027-8424 |pmc=21240 |pmid=11038553 |bibcode=1997PNAS...94.6809G |doi-access=free }} *{{Cite journal |last1=Yu |first1=Jianming |last2=Pressoir |first2=Gael |last3=Briggs |first3=William H. |last4=Vroh Bi |first4=Irie |last5=Yamasaki |first5=Masanori |last6=Doebley |first6=John F. |last7=McMullen |first7=Michael D. |last8=Gaut |first8=Brandon S. |last9=Nielsen |first9=Dahlia M. |last10=Holland |first10=James B. |last11=Kresovich |first11=Stephen |last12=Buckler |first12=Edward S. |date=February 2006 |title=A unified mixed-model method for association mapping that accounts for multiple levels of relatedness |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/ng1702 |journal=Nature Genetics |language=en |volume=38 |issue=2 |pages=203–208 |doi=10.1038/ng1702 |pmid=16380716 |s2cid=8507433 |issn=1546-1718|url-access=subscription }} *{{Cite journal |last1=Wright |first1=Stephen I. |last2=Bi |first2=Irie Vroh |last3=Schroeder |first3=Steve G. |last4=Yamasaki |first4=Masanori |last5=Doebley |first5=John F. |last6=McMullen |first6=Michael D. |last7=Gaut |first7=Brandon S. |date=2005-05-27 |title=The Effects of Artificial Selection on the Maize Genome |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1107891 |journal=Science |language=en |volume=308 |issue=5726 |pages=1310–1314 |doi=10.1126/science.1107891 |pmid=15919994 |s2cid=25581643 |issn=0036-8075|url-access=subscription }}

== References == {{reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gaut, Brandon}} Category:Living people Category:Plant geneticists Category:American geneticists Category:University of California, Irvine faculty Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Category:Year of birth missing (living people)