I am a post-doctoral researcher in David McCauley's lab where we study plant evolutionary biology. In particular, we are interested in the mitochondrial population genetics of the introduced weed Silene vulgaris. This species is a gynodioecious, perennial native to Europe in which we are currently studying heteroplasmy, non-maternal inheritance, and recombination in the mitochondrial genome.
My doctoral work focused on a rare and endangered sunflower species, Helianthus verticillatus, that is known to only four locations in the world. The species is native to the southeastern United States and is a candidate for federal listing on the Endagered Species Act. I have asked several questions regarding its rarity specifically how does this extreme rarity affect both the population genetics and the fitness of these few populations. I employed gene-based microsatellites or EST-SSRs that were devoloped in the domesticated sunflower, H. annuus, as well as greenhouse crossing experiments to study the conservation genetics of this rare species.
