Keyword: Macroevolution

• Department of Integrative Biology

I build phylogenies to clarify taxonomy and biodiversity of key plant groups, focusing on tomato (Solanaceae) and legume (Fabaceae). I use these trees to study how lineages diversified and responded to environmental change, providing evolutionary context for global biodiversity and biome assembly. I study trait evolution to see how ecological pressures shape morphological and genomic features—like genome size, underground organs, and fruit—and how traits affect adaptation. I apply population genomics to wild species to test species boundaries and assess genetic variation, disease-resistance gene diversity, and historical genomic change from modern and herbarium samples. Together, these approaches link evolutionary history, trait diversity, and genomic processes to inform conservation.