- Department
- Email Address
- [email protected]
- Research Areas
- Research Keywords
- Research Description
In my lab, we are interested on why certain plants grow in some places and not others. To provide answers to these questions, we study the evolution and ecology of plants through carefully curated phylogenies and accurate taxonomic, and geographic and ecological datasets. Untangling the distribution patterns of plants helps us understand how they will respond to ecosystem change.
- Research Summary
Our three main axes of research are:
- Ecology and genome size and variation: we study how ecological pressures (e.g., abiotic stress) affect the evolution of transposable elements, genome size, and influence trait and plant fitness. We use species of the genus Solanum as models.
- Population genomics: we investigate how wild relatives of crops can be used to address food security and improve the resilience of their domesticated relatives. We will be expanding in this research area, focusing on more wild species in the genus Solanum that span diverse ecological gradients.
- Macroevolution and biogeography: we aim to understand the mechanism and processes behind the diversification of plants over large time scales.- Techniques Used
Curated phylogenies; taxonomic, geographic and ecological datasets; bioinformatics; phylogenomics; multivariate statistical analyses.
- Locations of international collaborators
Federal University of Pernambuco, Federal University of Bahia (Brazil); Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Technical University of Munich (Germany); Royal Botanic Gardens (UK); Australian National University (Australia); Université Paris-Saclay (France); University of Utah, Bucknell University (USA); National University of Cuyo (Argentina).
- Links