<p>Edaphic factors--those pertaining to the substrate or soil--are thought to play an important role in the diversification of flowering plants. Although edaphic factors are widely interpreted as causal agents in plant ...
<p>Evolution can be studied at many levels, from phenotypic to molecular, and from a variety of disciplines. An integrative approach can help provide a more complete understanding of the complexities of evolutionary change. ...
<p>Bryophytes, by their haploid dominant life cycle, possess several unique qualities ideal for study of mating patterns. In particular, the possibility of intragametophytic selfing in some species, and the vegetative ...
<p>Understanding the mechanisms that underlie the formation of, and innovation in biochemical pathways is an important goal in evolutionary biology. The following work addresses the problem of biochemical pathway evolution ...
<p>Evolutionary dynamics can be notoriously complex and difficult to analyze. In this dissertation I describe a population genetic regime where the dynamics are simple enough to allow a relatively complete and elegant ...
<p>Scallops, a family of swimming bivalve mollusks, have dozens of eyes arrayed along the edges of their valves. Relatively little is known about the form and function of these unusual eyes. To learn more about them, we ...
<p>Although evolution results from differential reproduction and survival at the level of the individual, most research in evolutionary genetics is concerned with comparisons made at the level of divergent populations or ...
Epithelial-mesenchymal transitions (EMTs) are fundamental and indispensable
to embryonic morphogenesis throughout the animal kingdom. At the onset of
gastrulation in the sea urchin embryo, micromere-derived primary ...
<p>Many factors, including gene networks, developmental processes, and the environment mediate the link between the activity of genes and complex phenotypes in higher organisms. While genetic variants are the raw material ...
<p>Biodiversity is generated by the process of speciation. Because biological species are defined as populations that are unable to exchange genes with one another, the study of the evolution of reproductive isolation ...
<p>Lichens are symbioses between a fungus and a photosynthesizing partner such as a green alga or a cyanobacterium. Unlike mycorrhizal or rhizobial symbioses, the lichen symbiosis is not well understood either morphologically ...
<p>Because species respond individually to climate change, understanding community assembly requires examination of multiple species from a diversity of forest niches. I present the post-glacial phylogeographic history of ...
Microtubules, dynamic structures that make up the cellular cytoskeleton, are essential for cellular transport, motility, division, and structural stability. Accordingly, their dynamics must be tightly regulated. One such ...
<p>The evolution of selfing from outcrossing is one of the most frequent mating system transitions in angiosperms. Plants that are highly selfing typically exhibit a suite of morphological traits termed a "selfing syndrome," ...
<p>Dendrite shape is a defining component of neuronal function. Yet, the mechanisms specifying diverse dendritic morphologies, and the extent to which their functioning depends on these morphologies, remain unclear. Here, ...
<p>Lichen-forming fungi employ a successful mode of nutrition as symbiotic partners with green algae and/or cyanobacteria (the photobiont). Nearly one fifth of all known fungi are obligate lichen formers, yet we know little ...
<p>Determining the genetic basis of adaptation has become a central focus of evolutionary biology, and the incorporation of increasingly sophisticated analytical tools from molecular biology has made identifying causal ...
The Four O'clock Family (Nyctaginaceae) has a number of genera with unusual morphological and ecological characters, several of which appear to have a "tendency" to evolve repeatedly in Nyctaginaceae. I present a molecular ...
<p>A fundamental goal in the diverse field of evolutionary biology is reconstructing the historical processes that facilitated lineage diversification and the current geographic distribution of species diversity. Oceanic ...
<p>The goal of this dissertation was to better clarify the sensory and cognitive capabilities and limitations of a size-constrained animal. Because visually-guided behaviors are more experimentally tractable than behaviors ...