Jan Erik Aagaard

Department of Botany

University of Washington

Box 3555325

Seattle, WA 98195-5325

RESEARCH INTERESTS

I’m broadly interested in the evolution of floral morphology, and particularly in the evolution of the genes which regulate floral development. As part of my dissertation research, I’m cloning Mimulus homologues of genes which regulate floral meristem identity (LFY/FLO), specify regional boundaries within floral meristems (UFO/FIM), and specify organ identity within boundaries (AP3/DEF) — these three genes interact in a developmental regulatory network which has been well established in the major plant model systems Arabidopsis thaliana and Antirrhinum majus. Comparing coding regions ofMimulus orthologues and paralogues of these genes from several species, I’m addressing three questions prominent in the field of evolutionary developmental biology:

      1. Do genes which act at qualitatively different "levels" of developmental regulatory networks evolve at different rates?
      2. Do gene duplicates (paralogs) evolve at different rates relative to lineages with a single copy?
      3. Are there particular functional regions of genes (e.g., DNA binding, protein-protein interaction) which appear to be the targets of adaptive evolution ?

 

This work is being conducted in collaboration with a number of labs at several universities. In addition to working with members of the Willis lab at Duke, I’m working with Patrick Phillips and John Postlethwait at the University of Oregon, and Dick Olmstead at the University of Washington.

 

EDUCATION

Ph.D. 2004 University of Oregon, Department of Biology

M.S. 1997 Oregon State University, Department of Forest Science (Forestry)

B.A. 1993 St. Olaf College (Biology)

 

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

2001-present Visiting Scholar and IGERT Fellow, Botany Department, University of Washington (home institution: University of Oregon)

1998- 2001 Graduate Teaching Fellow and IGERT Fellow, Biology Department, University of Oregon.

1997-1998 Research Technician and Teaching Instructor, Science Department, Washington State University, Vancouver.

1994-1997 Graduate Research Assistant, Department of Forest Science, Oregon State University.

 

HONORS AND AWARDS

IGERT Fellow in Evolution, Development, and Genomics, Biology Department, University of Oregon

Department of Forest Science Faculty Award in Recognition of Graduate Student Achievement, Oregon State University

Elected to St. Olaf chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, graduated Summa cum Laude with departmental honors

NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates award recipient, Shannon Point Marine Lab, Western Washington University

 

FUNDING

The evolution of floral developmental genes in Mimulus. NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant . July 2001 — June 2003. $9,221.

The contribution of floral developmental genes to floral morphological variation between Mimulus species. Sigma Xi Grants in Aid of Research. July 2000 — June 2001. $968

 

PUBLICATIONS

Sorensen, F. C., Mandel, N L., Aagaard, J. E. 2001. Role of selection vs historical isolation in racial differentiation of ponderosa pine in southern Oregon--an investigation of alternative hypotheses. Canadian Journal of Forest Research. In Press.

Aagaard, J.E., Harrod, R.J., and Shea, K.L. 1999. Genetic variation among populations of the rare lady-slipper orchid (Cypripedium fasciculatum) from Washington state. Natural Areas Journal 19:234-238.

Krutovskii, K.V., Erofeeva, S.Y., Aagaard, J.E., and Strauss, S.H. 1999. Simulation of effects of dominance on estimates of population genetic diversity and differentiation. Journal of Heredity 90(4): 499-502.

Aagaard, J.E., Krutovskii, K.V., and Strauss, S.H. 1998. RAPD markers of mitochondrial origin exhibit lower population diversity and higher differentiation than RAPDs of nuclear origin in Douglas-fir. Molecular Ecology 7: 801-812.

Aagaard, J.E., Krutovskii, K.V., and Strauss, S.H. 1998. RAPDs and allozymes exhibit similar levels of differentiation and diversity in Douglas-fir. Heredity 81: 69-78.

Aagaard, J.E. 1997. Genetic Diversity and Differentiation in Douglas-fir from RAPD markers of Nuclear and Mitochondrial Origin. M.S. Thesis, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon. 170 pp.

Aagaard, J.E., Vollmer, S.S., Sorensen, F.S., and Strauss, S.H. 1995. Mitochondrial DNA products among RAPD profiles are frequent and strongly differentiated between races of Douglas-fir. Molecular Ecology 4: 441-447.