My research is at the interface of crop evolution, quantitative genetics, population genomics and domestication. I work with a range of legumes, grasses and oilseed species using a combination of literature, databasing, phenotypic and genomic tools.
I am interested in domestication history of wheat to unravel the genetic basis of domestication traits in durum wheat (Triticum monococcum) and its progenitor T. dicoccoides. I will use genetics of quantitative traits and practical applications in collaboration with Dr. Abraham Korol at University of Haifa, Israel.
I am developing research in taxonomic, phenotypic and genomic evaluation of perennial lupines with emphasis on Lupinus polyphyllus (the garden lupine). Phenotypic evaluations of Lupinus polyphyllus were undertaken during the Perennial Agriculture Project (Global Inventory) at Saint Louis University, the Missouri Botanical Garden and The Land Institute. Genomic evaluation assessing signatures of domestication in ornamental and forage lupines is underway in collaboration with Allison Miller (Saint Louis University & The Donald Danforth Plant Science) and Brandon Schlautman (The Land Institute).
In my PhD thesis I applied phylogeographic tools to unravel evolutionary histories of disjunct and invasive plant species distributed around the Great Lakes region, a very dynamic geographic area with relatively recent colonisation histories. I first characterized four species that have disjunct populations in the Great Lakes region: (Bartonia paniculata subsp. paniculata, Empetrum nigrum, Sporobolus heterolepis, and Carex richardsonii). Through comparisons of core and disjunct populations, I found that a range of historical processes have resulted in two broad scenarios: in the first scenario, genetically distinct disjunct and core populations diverged prior to the last glacial cycle, and in the second scenario more recent vicariant events have resulted in genetically similar core and disjunct populations. The former scenario has important implications for conservation management.
I then characterized the Typha species complex (T. latifolia, T. angustifolia, T. x glauca), which collectively represent species with continuous distributions. Recent microevolutionary processes, including hybridization, introgression, and intercontinental dispersal, obscure the phylogeographic patterns and complicate the evolutionary history of Typha spp. around the Great Lakes region, and have resulted in the growing dominance of non-native lineages. A broader geographical comparison of Typha spp. lineages from around the world identified repeated cryptic dispersal and long-distant movement as important phylogeographic influences. My research has demonstrated that comparisons of regional and global evolutionary histories can provide insight into historical and contemporary processes useful for management decisions in conservation biology and invasive species.