Researchers have long assumed that black widow coloration functions as a warning signal to avian predators. However adult female black widow coloration does not resemble typical warning coloration in two distinct ways. First, ...

In an attempt to gain more insight on functional evolution of cAMP-PKA pathway I have taken a comparative approach and examined functional interactions of cAMP-PKA signaling in well-studied yeast developmental programs and ...

While local adaptation has been frequently demonstrated via reciprocal transplant experiments, our understanding of the genetic basis of it remains minimal. There is a notable lack of studies that identify naturally segregating ...

The fern family Cystopteridaceae has been a thorn in the side of fern phylogeneticists, on many levels. Until this thesis, its basic existence (as a deeply isolated clade) and composition were unrecognized, hypotheses as ...

It is increasingly evident that evolutionary processes play a role in how ecological communities are assembled. However the extend to which evolution influences how plants respond to spatial and environmental gradients and ...

This dissertation examines the processes that generate phenotypic variation in life cycles in seasonal environments. Collectively, a life cycle describes the stages an organism passes through during a generation. The timing, ...

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 ...

GTPases are integral components of virtually every known signal transduction pathway, and mutations in GTPases frequently cause disease. A genomic analysis identified and annotated 174 GTPases in the sea urchin genome (with ...

The evolution of animal signals is driven largely by characteristics of the signaling environment and properties of receiver sensory systems. Selection favors signal traits that increase the probability that a signal will ...

TThe proposed research will provide a set of 16 near complete mtDNA gene orders. The observed gene rearrangements will be used to investigate the phylogeny of the Sub-Class Hydroidolina and the Family Hydractiniidae. All ...