Unusual and complicated forms of sex are the hallmarks of plant reproduction. My lab addresses questions about plant reproduction from the perspectives of empirical evolutionary ecology and theoretical population genetics. We ask how the forces of evolution shape genetic and morphological characteristics of plants growing in nature. Insights from these studies influence practical areas such as conservation biology and plant breeding in agronomy and forestry.
Many plants have male and female reproductive organs in the same flower.
This means that individuals transmit genes to the next generation through both male and female pathways, and can fertilize themselves. Using population genetics, mathematical models, and computer simulations, we explore how mating patterns influence the selection and evolution of reproductive and other plant characters. We are particularly interested in how ecological details of reproduction influence the diversity of plant mating systems. Self fertilization is a very important feature of plant mating, because selfing structures the genetic variation on which natural selection acts. Our lab exploits this unique feature to ask about fundamental facts of biology such as the rate at which genes mutate to less efficient variants, and how selection acts to limit transposable element number.