The Molecular Evolutionary Ecology of Plant Development
Genetics of Plant Domestication
The Nature of Selection in Plant Genomes
General Evolutionary and Developmental Genetics
Why do different species look different from one another? How do developmental patterns change as a result of local adaptation? How are environmental signals integrated by organisms to condition an appropriate developmental response? These are some of the questions that we attempt to address by studying the molecular evolution of genes that control shoot architecture and inflorescence development in the wild mustard weed Arabidopsis thaliana. We are engaged in assessing the evolutionary forces that act in plant developmental pathways at the species level, and in mapping and isolating genes that underlie natural variation in shoot architectures and life histories.
This work combines concepts and techniques in molecular population genetics, quantitative genetics, developmental biology and evolutionary ecology. Research includes studying the evolution and ecology of inflorescence development, the evolution of meristem allocation patterns, and the molecular population genetics of the inflorescence developmental pathway in Arabidopsis.
Crops are plant species that have evolved in a cultural context to provide food and other products for human society. Crop species are fascinating subjects for evolutionary study, since they are examples of species that have undergone rapid diversification under intense selection pressures. They also permit us to understand the dynamic interface between genetics, evolution and human culture. We are studying the evolution of genes in rice (Oryza sativa). By using tools of molecular and evolutionary genomics, these studies provide insights into the processes and mechanisms that accompany cultural selection on plant species during domestication events. Check out the rice evolutionary genomics website!
Adaptations require selection on genes, and we are interested in examining patterns of selection in Arabidopsis and rice loci. We have developed genomic tools and approaches to identify and study rapidly evolving genes whose products have high rates of protein evolution, as well as genes that display unusually high diversity within the species. We are also studying the molecular population genetics and evolution of duplicate genes in the genome. The population genetics and functions of these genes are being studied both by molecular analysis of sequence variation and by functional studies using expression analyses, promoter construct fusions and T-DNA insertion knock-outs.
At present and over the past few years, there have been a number of other projects in the laboratory in evolutionary, ecological and developmental genetics, including the developmental biology of sex allocation patterns in Spergularia marina, the evolutionary ecology of heterocyst development in cyanobacteria, the population genetics of human migration and expansion in the Philippine archipelago, and the genetics of incipient speciation in Arabidopsis.
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