About Me
Research Publishing at Wiley| Evolutionary Biology at Texas A&M University
- I'm Jorja Burch, and I hold a Ph.D. in Biology from Texas A&M University. I work in Strategic Content Acquisitions at Wiley Publishing.
- TAMU Email: jorjaelliott@tamu.edu
- Department Phone: (979) 845-7747
- Research Interests: Plant Biology, Quantitative Genetics
- Career Interests: Scientific Publishing, Research Commissioning
Biography
Explore my current and previous research, as well as my professional experiences.
Education
Doctor of Philosophy in Biology
2021 - 2025
Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
My research is focused on a central question: what role does epistasis play in the genetic architecture of traits across the tree of life?
Bachelor of Science in Biology
2017 - 2021
Fort Hays State University, Hays, KS
Graduated with Honors
Kansas Academy of Mathematics and Science
2017 - 2019
Fort Hays State University, Hays, KS
KAMS is Kansas' premier early college program, designed to provide a STEM-focused academic experience for gifted & talented 11th and 12th grade students. Students apply for the program in their sophomore year of high school, and if chosen, they move to the Fort Hays State University campus to complete their junior/senior years of high school and their freshman/sophomore years of college simultaneously.
Professional Experience
Content Acquisition Specialist
2024 - present
Wiley
- I serve as a Content Acquisition Specialist, where I commission research to be included within special issues for a portfolio of journals. Primarily, I handle health science and veterinary medicine journal titles. I also provide analyses of research trends published in both Wiley and competitor jounals.
Associate Editor
2023 - present
Journal of Emerging Investigators
- I serve as an associate editor for JEI, a science journal and mentorship program publishing resarch by midding and high school scientists. I am responsible for assessing manuscript quality, obtaining peer reviews, requesting revisions where appropriate, and making recommendations to the journal editor about acceptance or rejection of a manuscript.
Peer Reviewer
2023 - present
Genetics Society of America Journals Peer Review Training Program
- This program provides early career researchers with experience in peer review and the editoral process. Participants learn about scientific publishing, different peer review styles, how to dissect a manuscript, and how to provide the most useful feedback to the authors. As a participant, I review research articles and genome reports for G3 and Genetics journals.
Graduate Research Assistant
2022 - 2025
Texas A&M University
- What role does epistasis in the genetic architecture of traits across the tree of life?
- How important are maternal effects in traits of Solanum sp. crosses?
- Does the Line Cross Analysis of "complex" traits lead to biased inferences of genetic architecture?
- How well do the inferred genetic architectures of compound traits predict response to selection?
Graduate Teaching Assistant
2021 - 2025
Texas A&M University
- Fall 2021 Introductory Biology 111, Undergraduate, 60 students
- Spring 2022 Introductory Biology 112, Undergraduate, 50 students
- Fall 2022 Introductory Biology 111 Honors, Undergraduate, 24 students
- Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024 Critical Writing in Biology, Undergraduate, 50 students
Research Assistant
2020
Heartland Plant Innovations, Manhattan, KS
- This facility produces double haploid strains of wheat with the goal of producing genetically pure plant lines that serve to accelerate the breeding process, offer a quick route to new gene transformations, disease resistance, and improved quality and yield.
- I learned commercially-oriented research techniques, including polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and gel electrophoresis analysis of genes, emasculation, embryo rescue, application of hormonal treatments, and disease management.
Publications
See my highlighted publications below.
Assessing the opportunity for selection to impact morphological traits in crosses between two Solanum species
J. Burch, C. Nava, H. Blackmon
PeerJ 2024, 12, e17985
Failures to atomize traits leads to systemic failure in line cross analyses
J. Burch, C. Nava, M. Copeland, H. Blackmon
Under review at Proceedings of the Royal Society B
Compound trait genetic architecture
Current Project
Line cross analysis is a common quantitative genetics method used to quantify the genetic architecture underlying traits in crosses between two lines, species, populations, etc. The expectation is unknown for the genetic architecture of a compound trait that is composed of multiple component traits (e.g., ratio of leaf width to leaf length being used as a measure for leaf roundness). This project involves simulations where we try to illustrate the expectation for genetic architectures of compound traits, depending on how the component are combined (multiplicative, ratio, etc.).
Morphological traits and maternal genetic effects
Through generation of crosses between two Solanum species, we were able to quantify the genetic architecture uunderlying eight morphological traits. We were able to show a key role for maternal effects and characterize the frquency of epistasis and impacting morphological traits.
Evolution of traits in S. pennellii and S. lycopersicum
What proportion of trait divergence among tomato species is due to epistatic variation? By observing morphological and life history traits across seven crosses of tomatoes, I have used a quantitative genetics method, line cross analysis, to infer the net genetic architecture for traits that have diverged in the parental strains.