Broad questions in our lab

• What evolutionary forces maintain variation in complex traits within populations?


• What genomic changes underlie adaptive evolution?


• How are populations transformed into reproductively isolated species?

Study System

Projects

Genomic Approach

Much of our work focuses on the Mimulus guttatus species complex (yellow monkey flowers), a group of closely related species exhibiting the common evolutionary transition from outcrossing to self-pollination. Mimulus presents an excellent model system for studies of evolution because of its broad diversity of floral morphologies, incomplete reproductive barriers, and its amenability to experimental manipulation.

Be sure to explore the people page for more information on individual research projects, but here is a list of some of our ongoing projects!

• The maintenance of standing genetic variation
• The genetic basis of flower color polymorphism
• Environmental genomics of adaptation to local water availability and other abiotic factors
• Genetics of reproductive isolation and adaptation in coast-inland ecogeographic races of Mimulus guttatus
• The genetic architecture of adaptive traits in edaphic endemics (copper mines)
• Evolutionary genetics of polyploidy in Mimulus
• Read about the results of these and other projects!  

In order to address fundamental evolutionary questions in Mimulus, we are currently developing extensive bioinformatic and genomic resources, as part of a collaborative NSF Frontiers in Biological Research (FIBR) grant, and in collaboration with DOE's Joint Genome Institute. These resources include large EST databases, thousands of genetic markers based on genes and microsatellite sequences, high density integrated genetic and physical maps (based on BAC libraries) of two distantly related Mimulus species, and the entire genomic sequence of Mimulus guttatus! We are also developing microarrays in collaboration with Todd Vision's lab at UNC, and methods for transformation with David Tricoli of UC-Davis.