Graduate students
Jessica Devitt (Hired as a Lab Manager at Jonah Ventures in 2018)
I am a graduate student pursuing a Master’s Degree in Biology. Many plant species exist in desert-like environments, but we know very little about what genes have evolved to allow species to live in such harsh conditions. My research searches for genetic adaptations shown through the expressed genes when they are exposed to drought conditions. I am conducting studies using Mentzelia (Loasaceae), a desert-adapted species that occurs throughout the southwestern U.S. deserts. Understanding these adaptations plays an important role particularly with the increasing amount of extreme environments due to global warming. Researchers will be able to apply this understanding for new techniques in agriculture as well as resource and ecosystem management as climates continue to shift to become drier and hotter. |
Undergraduates
Abigail Moore (Started a M.S. Degree at Oregon State University in 2021)
I am an undergraduate student majoring in Environmental and Plant Biology with a minor in Computer Science. Through my educational and research experiences, I have become particularly interested in plant genetics and selective breeding. My current research project explores the genomes of the pinnatisect-leaved species of Mentzelia section Bartonia that are located near the Four-Corners region of the southwestern United States. I take advantage of my computer science background by applying algorithms to assemble the nuclear, mitochondrial, and chloroplast genomes across species. We are investing discordance among the genomes to understand the evolution of the pinnatisect-leaved species. |
Andrea Appleton (Started a Ph.D. at Harvard University in 2021)
I am a biology student at Georgia Southern University with particular interests in botany and natural history. Plants have evolved a tremendous amount of variation in flower structures to facilitate reproduction, the driving force of life. Staminodes, which are modified stamen (the male part of the flower) that have lost their reproductive ability, exemplify how flowers can be modified by evolution. Some species of Paronychia (Caryophyllaceae), the nailwort genus, possess staminodes, which are uncommon especially in flowers that do not have petals. I am testing the hypotheses that staminodes in Paronychia are infertile stamens coopted as nectar guides or pollinator landing platforms, vestigial stamens, or that these structures are rudimentary or reemergent petals (i.e., not staminodes). My project will determine the evolution of floral development in reference to staminodes and their functional roles, investigate the homology of floral structures, and infer the evolutionary origin of staminodes in Paronychia. Nick Chilson (graduated in 2020 from OU) I am a senior studying Environmental and Plant Biology with a minor in Biology. My professional interests include ecology, natural resource management and plant systematics. My current research project focuses on the leaf anatomy of species within Mentzelia section Bartonia. I am generating anatomical slides of preserved leaf material to correlate anatomical structures to environmental variation. Samera Mulatu (Started a Ph.D. at Texas A & M University in 2020) I am a sophomore at Georgia Southern University majoring in Biology with a Pre-Physician Assistant track. A species range is determined in large part by its ability to disperse and its tolerance of novel environmental conditions. One of the most remarkable dispersal events involve species that occur in both North and South America, yet not in the equatorial tropical region. I am interested in determining how these species came to have their current range throughout the Americas. I am using ecological niche modeling to test the hypotheses that (1) species dispersed by island hopping across the tropical zone in temperate microhabitats, (2) species came to their current distribution through vicariance, or (3) species dispersal by a single long distance dispersal. Raven Richardson (graduated in 2020 from GSU) I am a sophomore at Georgia Southern University majoring in Biology with a pre-medical concentration. Reproduction is one of the most important aspects of the life cycle in any living organism and species have evolved mechanisms to reproduce effectively. Of the factors that affect reproductive success, seed dispersal is one of the most important stages. Seed dispersal mechanisms are directly correlated with reproductive effectiveness in plants. In plants that disperse their seeds and fruits by wind, for example, it is assumed that plant height is correlated with dispersal ability. This hypothesis, however, has not been tested. I am using the carrot family, Apiaceae, to test the hypothesis that plant height is correlated with dispersal ability in wind dispersed species. Lucia Botnaru (graduated in 2020 from GSU) I am a junior at Georgia Southern University majoring in Biology with a particular focus in entomology. Insects and flowers often have a coordinated relationship, where flowers depend on pollinators to remove, deposit, and spread pollen. Consequently, flowers have evolved numerous structures to facilitate effective pollination. One such structure is staminodes, which are stamens (the pollen producing structures) that have lost the ability to produce pollen and instead appear similar to petals. These staminodes obtain a new function to attract pollinators. I am interested in determining whether flowers with staminodes attract more pollinators compared to flowers that do not contain these structures in the genus Mentzelia (family: Loasaceae). Khadijah Kelly (started a D.M.D. at University of Maryland in 2018) I am a senior at Georgia Southern University majoring in Biology with a Pre-Dental track. Genetic variation is one of the most commonly used methods to understand species diversity. For some groups of organisms that recently evolved and have had less time to genetically diversify, we need genetic data that is especially variable in order to resolve species relationships. I am studying the species diversity within the pinnatifid Mentzelia section Bartonia, a group of six species that recently diversified near the Four-Corners region of the southwestern United States. Previous studies on this group based on two ribosomal markers were unable to differentiate these species among more distantly related species. I am analyzing the genetic differences of the species through genome skimming, a next-generation sequencing method, to infer relationships and test whether the pinnatifid form evolved more than once. Kelsey Saunders (graduated in 2017 from GSU) I am a senior at Georgia Southern University majoring in Biology with a concentration in Environmental Sustainability. In plants, we observe a repeated pattern of a species (or two closely related species) occurring in temperate North America and South America, but not in the interleaving tropical areas. A prevailing hypothesis to explain this pattern is that birds are dispersal vectors that transport fruits or seeds from North America to South America. If true, I hypothesize that most amphitropical distributed species will have fruits or seeds that are adapted to either being consumed by birds, or attaching directly to them. My research includes studying whether there are common dispersal features that could explain how species are dispersed long distances. Jim Long (started a M.S. Degree at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington in 2018) I am a Junior at Georgia Southern University majoring in Biology and minoring in Psychology. I am currently researching the unique plant composition of sandhill environments in Southeast Georgia. Sandhill environments were once widespread throughout the southeastern United States but, due to land development, these environments are now highly fragmented and endangered. I am surveying multiple sandhill sites in order to compare how similar or unique they are from each other. My study involves compiling a detailed list of plant species on sandhill environments and past species catalogs of local sandhill environments. The purpose of my research is to identify unique species and patterns of species distribution on sandhill environments in order to determine if the loss of sandhill environments is affecting endemic sandhill plant species. McKayla Noble (Started an M.S.D. Degree at South University in Savannah in 2016) I am a senior Biology major at Georgia Southern University working on the systematics of the genus Paronychia (Caryophyllaceae). There are 110 species represented in the genus, which occur worldwide with two major centers of diversity, one in the Mediterranean and a second in North America. There are two centers of North American diversity, perennial species in the southwest and annual species in the southeast. I am taking a phylogenetic approach to determine whether a common set of evolutionary mechanisms were responsible for generating these two centers of species diversity and how species spatially diversified throughout North America. Kyndra Thompson (Started an M.S. Degree at Georgia Southern University in 2016) I am a senior at Georgia Southern University majoring in Biology with a minor in Chemistry. The goal of my research is to determine if the morphological differences between Synthyris reniformis and S. cordata are phenotypic responses to the chemical differences in their respective soil types, or correspond to species boundaries. Synthyris reniformis occurs on loam soils and has kidney-shaped leaves, whereas S. cordata occurs on serpentine soils and has narrower heart-shaped leaves. Serpentine is a low nutrient soil with high levels of heavy metals that preclude non-specialists, but contains a diverse plant community. Plants that can grow both on and off serpentine oftentimes look different depending on which soils they grow on, for example, having narrower leaves. I am applying a genetic approach to determine if the morphological differences between S. cordata and S. reniformis are responses to soil types or speciation. |