Laura Stein
Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences George Lynn Cross Hall 327 laura dot stein at ou dot edu https://laurastein.weebly.com/ Ph.D., Ecology, Ethology, and Evolution - University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 2015RESEARCH:
My research seeks to understand the causes and consequences of behavioral plasticity, how behavior influences evolutionary patterns, and how experience, in particular between parents and offspring, shapes development. Our lab uses an integrated approach incorporating behavioral observation, neuroendocrine approaches, and genomic tools to answer broad questions from both proximate and ultimate perspectives. We use two excellent models of plasticity and evolution, the Trinidadian guppy (Poecilia reticulata) and the threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus), to investigate outstanding questions in this field.
Selected Publications:
McCarthy, J. R., St John, M. E., and Stein, L. R. (2026) Trust myself or trust my friends? Exploring the effect of social information use in Poecilia wingei. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 80: 48.
Merritt, A. M., St John, M. E., Leri, F., and Stein, L. R. (2024) Sensory cues of predation risk generate sex-specific changes in neural activity and behavior, but not hormones, in Trinidadian guppies. Hormones and Behavior 166: 105635.
Leri, F. and Stein, L. R. (2024) Does parental experience with visual and olfactory predator cues have consequences for offspring in guppies? Animal Behaviour 214: 241-255.
Barrett, R. and Stein, L. R. (2024) Short-term heat waves have long-term consequences for parents and offspring in stickleback. Behavioral Ecology: arae036.
Iffert, R. Q. and Stein, L. R. (2024) Effects of short- and long-term enrichment on brain and behavior in Trinidadian guppies. Ethology: e13436.
Stein, L. R. and Bell, A.M. (2019) The role of variation and plasticity in parental care during the adaptive radiation of threespine sticklebacks. Evolution 73: 1037-1044.
Bukhari, S. A., Saul, M. C., James, N., Bensky, M., Stein, L. R., Trapp, R., Stubbs, L., and Bell, A. M. (2019) Neurogenomic insights into paternal care and its relation to territorial aggression. Nature Communications 10: 1-11.
Stein, L. R., Bukhari, S. A., and Bell, A. M. (2018) Personal and transgenerational cues are redundant at the phenotypic and molecular level. Nature Ecology and Evolution 2: 1306-1311.
Stein, L. R., Trapp, R. M., and Bell, A.M. (2016) Do reproduction and parenting influence personality traits? Insights from threespine stickleback. Animal Behaviour 112: 247-254.
Stein, L. R. and Bell, A.M. (2014) Paternal programming in sticklebacks. Animal Behaviour 95: 165-171.