Jenny Tung, Visiting Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology  

Jenny Tung

I am broadly interested in the evolutionary genetics of wild populations, particularly the relationship between genetic variation, environmental variation, and observable phenotypic variation of adaptive importance. I am especially interested in systems where concordant genetic, environmental, and phenotypic data are available (or can be produced) for the same individuals. These systems offer the opportunity to study how genotype-phenotype relationships may be modified by ecologically important environmental variation. Most of my work focuses on wild baboons, and most of these baboons are members of a long-term population living in the Amboseli Basin of southern Kenya. This population has been under continuous study since 1971 by the Amboseli Baboon Research Project (www.princeton.edu/~baboon). My current projects focus on: 1) Hybridization between anubis baboons (Papio anubis) and yellow baboons (Papio cynocephalus) in Amboseli and elsewhere in southern Kenya (collaboration with Marie Charpentier at CNRS-Montpellier) 2) The evolution of cis-regulatory variation in the Amboseli baboons, including its consequences for in vivo gene expression

Education:
Ph.D., Duke University, 2010

Office Location: 08 Bio Sci, Durham, NC 27708
Email Address: jenny.tung@duke.edu
Web Page: http://www.duke.edu/~jt5
Additional Web Page: http://www.tung-lab.org

Specialties:
Primate Biology
Genetics and Genomics

Recent Publications   (More Publications)   (search)

  1. Downie, AE; Tung, J, Evolutionary genetics meets ecological immunology: insights into the evolution of immune systems., Current opinion in genetics & development, vol. 95 (December, 2025), pp. 102411 [doi]  [abs].
  2. Rosenbaum, S; Malani, A; Lea, AJ; Tung, J; Alberts, SC; Archie, EA, Testing early life effects frameworks: developmental constraints and adaptive response hypotheses do not explain fertility outcomes in wild female baboons., Proceedings. Biological sciences, vol. 292 no. 2050 (July, 2025), pp. 20242485 [doi]  [abs].
  3. Jansen, DJ; Warutere, JK; Tung, J; Alberts, S; Archie, E, Early-life paternal relationships predict adult female survival in wild baboons., Proceedings. Biological sciences, vol. 292 no. 2049 (June, 2025), pp. 20250194 [doi]  [abs].
  4. Chege, MN; Ferretti, P; Webb, S; Macharia, RW; Obiero, G; Kamau, J; Alberts, SC; Tung, J; Akinyi, MY; Archie, EA, Eukaryotic composition across seasons and social groups in the gut microbiota of wild baboons., Animal microbiome, vol. 7 no. 1 (June, 2025), pp. 70 [doi]  [abs].
  5. Creighton, MJA; Lerch, BA; Lange, EC; Silk, JB; Tung, J; Archie, EA; Alberts, SC, Reevaluating the relationship between female sociality and infant survival in wild baboons., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 122 no. 20 (May, 2025), pp. e2417378122 [doi]  [abs].