Professor Soltis, a plant systematist, investigates evolutionary relationships in flowering plants and ferns utilizing a variety of experimental approaches, including starch gel electrophoresis, restriction fragment analysis of chloroplast DNA and nuclear ribosomal DNA, and comparative gene sequencing of rbc L, mat K, and other genes. Primary research interests include polyploidy and evolution with a particular emphasis on the angiosperm family Saxifragaceae.
Molecular data facilitate a reevaluation of traditional tenets of polyploid evolution.
Johnson, L. A. and D. E. Soltis, 1994. K DNA sequences and phylogenetic reconstruction in Saxifragaceae s. str. B.C. Mullin, J.M. Dowd, and P. Martin, 1994. Chloroplast gene sequence data suggest a single origin of the predisposition for symbiotic nitrogen fixation in angiosperms. My office is in Eastlick 399.