Principal Investigator
Robin Hopkins
Associate Professor
CV [PDF]
Contact
Email: rhopkins@fas.harvard.edu
Tel: (617)384-5501
Education
Robin Hopkins has always loved plants and grew up gardening with her mother in Vermont. She attended Brown University where she received bachelor degrees in Biology and Gender Studies. There she had her first research experience under the mentorship of Professor Johanna Schmitt. Dr. Hopkins went on to receive her PhD with Dr. Mark Rausher at Duke University. She received an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology to work with Dr. Mark Kirkpatrick at the University of Texas at Austin. In 2014, Dr. Hopkins started her lab at The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University as an Assistant Professor in the
Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology.
Honors and Awards
Dr. Hopkins has received a number of honors and awards, including the Roslyn Abramson Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Everett Mendelsohn award for Excellence in graduate mentoring, the Fannie Cox Prize for excellence in science teaching, the American Society of Naturalists Jasper Loftus-Hills Young Investigator Prize, the New Phytologist Tansley Medal, and the Harold Sanford Perry Prize for exceptional dissertation in plant biology.
Research Interests
Dr. Hopkins became interested in plant adaptation as an undergraduate while working on the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana. As a PhD student she became interested in flower color and its role in plant speciation. She was intrigued by the flower color variation in Phlox drummondii and was motivated to figure out how and why it was involved in reproductive isolation. Her research is now expanding beyond floral traits to explore a multitude of reproductive isolating mechanisms as well as other traits showing adaptive variation in Phlox.
Teaching
Freshman Seminar 21j
Plant Sex: Insights into the birds and the bees…and the buttercups and the bleeding hearts
Catalog Number: 43651 Enrollment: Limited to 10
Robin Hopkins (Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology)
Half course (spring term)
Ever wonder why your allergies are so bad in the spring? Or why your family garden is so diverse and colorful? Or why the cost of almonds is increasing as bee colonies decline? Understanding the ecology and evolution of plant reproduction can answer these questions and many more about the diversity of form and function in the natural world around us. This seminar addresses fundamental evolutionary concepts while exploring the dynamic relationship between plants and their pollinators. We will use plant-pollinator interactions to understand the science of mutualism, co-evolution, speciation, convergence, animal behavior, and conservation biology. Discussions and readings on these topics will be highlighted by trips to the Arnold Arboretum, the Harvard Museum of Natural History, and local beehives. We will utilize living plants to explore diversity in plant morphology and reproductive strategies. In-class activities will include mimicking bee buzz-pollination and observing pollen tube growth.
OEB 50.
Genetics and Genomics
Catalog Number: 72331
Robin Hopkins and Daniel L. Hartl (Public Health)
Primarily for Undergraduates
Half course (fall term) | Tu., Th., 11:30-1 pm | Exam Group: 15
Fundamental concepts in genetics and genomics forming a critical foundation for biology approached from two perspectives: (1) as a body of knowledge pertaining to genetic transmission, function, mutation, and evolution in eukaryotes and prokaryotes; and (2) as an experimental approach providing a toolkit for the study of biological processes such as development and behavior. Topics include structure, function, transmission, linkage, mutation, and manipulation of genes; genetic approaches in experimental studies of biological processes; and analysis of genomes in individuals and populations. Related ethical issues also discussed include genetically modified organisms, gene therapy, genetic testing, personalized medicine, and genetic privacy.
Postdoctoral Researchers
Felix Wu
Postdoc
Contact
Email: fwu at fas dot harvard dot edu
Research Interests
Publications
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=s-Hd0NkAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
Patrick McKenzie
Postdoc
Contact
Email: pmckenzie at fas dot harvard dot edu
Research Interests
Publications
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=xCg6H0sAAAAJ
Graduate Students
Contact
Email: bbickner at fas dot harvard dot edu
Research Interests
I’m an evolutionary ecologist broadly interested in the interplay between reproductive strategies and environmental adaptation. As an undergraduate researcher with Eileen Hebets at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, I studied the efficacy of male mating strategies in Pisaurid spiders (Pisaurina mira and Dolomedes tenebrosus) to understand the costs and benefits of sexual cannibalism to sperm transfer dynamics and offspring provisioning. As a PhD candidate in the Organismic and Evolutionary Biology department, I work with Elena Kramer and Robin Hopkins on the correlated evolution of the flower size/number and seed size/number tradeoffs in Phlox wildflowers. Specifically, I aim to uncover the developmental and genetic basis and adaptive significance of ovule packaging variation in the genus.
Publications
Anderson, A.G., Hebets, E.A., Bickner, B.M., & Watts, J.C. 2018. Males mate with multiple females to increase offspring numbers in a nursery web spider. Behavioral Ecology. 29(4):918-924.
Contact
Email: grace_burgin at g dot harvard dot edu
Research Interests
Christina Steinecke
Graduate Student
Contact
Email: christinasteinecke at fas dot harvard dot edu
Research Interests
I am an evolutionary biologist broadly interested in major evolutionary transitions in plants and the conditions that produce them. More specifically, I am interested in identifying the unique forces that drive the enormous diversity in plant reproductive strategies. For my master’s thesis, I researched the evolution of clonality in Mimulus guttatus and how selection on clonal reproduction can affect correlated traits, and for my undergraduate thesis I studied how self-compatibility can drive reproductive isolation among populations of Arabidopsis lyrata. In the Hopkins’ lab I am now working to elucidate the causes and consequences of hybridization, polyploidy, and contrasting life history strategies in Texan Phlox species.
Publications
Steinecke, C., J. Lee, and J. Friedman. Accepted. A standardized and efficient technique to estimate seed traits in plants with numerous small propagules. Applications in Plant Sciences, special issue of Applications in Plant Sciences.
Steinecke, C., and J. Friedman. 2023. Selection and genetic constraints on clonality in a perennial plant. Master’s thesis. Queen’s University, Kingston.
Steinecke, C., C.E. Gorman, M. Stift, and M.E. Dorken. 2022. High rates of outcrossing in self- compatible Arabidopsis lyrata under experimental admixture with self-incompatible plants. Heredity 128: 56-62.
Gorman, C.E., C. Steinecke, M.E. Dorken, M. van Kleunen, and M. Stift. 2020. Shift to annual habit in selfing Arabidopsis lyrata. Biology Letters 16: 20200402.
Valeria Schmidt
Graduate Student
Contact
Email: vschmidt at fas dot harvard dot edu
Research Interests
Vale joined the Extavour lab through the OEB graduate training program with an interest in understanding how the immediate abiotic environment and biotic interactions drive an organism’s phenotype, ecological patterning, and evolutionary processes through the interaction of genetics, and epigenetics. After starting her PhD in the Extavour lab based on her initial interest in incorporating developmental biology into her view of evolution, she soon realized that her interests lay more in adaptation and speciation genomics. She thus transferred to the Hopkins lab, where she continues to pursue her PhD studies.
Publications
(1)Tornini, V. A., Lee, H.-J., Miao, L., Tang, Y., Dube, S. E., Gerson, T., Schmidt, V. J., Du, K., Kuchroo, M., Kroll, F., Vejnar, C.E., Bazzini, A. A., Krishnaswamy, S., Rihel, J., & Giraldez, A. J. (2022). linc-mipep and linc-wrb encode micropeptides that regulate chromatin accessibility in vertebrate-specific neural cells. In bioRxiv (p. 2022.07.21.501032). https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.07.21.501032
(2)Chille, E. E., Strand, E. L., Scucchia, F., Neder, M., Schmidt, V., Sherman, M. O., Mass, T., & Putnam, H. M. (2021). Energetics but not development is impacted in coral embryos exposed to ocean acidification. In bioRxiv (p. 2021.07.19.452948). https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.19.452948
(3)Chille, E., Strand, E., Neder, M., Schmidt, V. et. al. Developmental series of gene expression clarifies maternal mRNA provisioning and maternal-to-zygotic transition in a reef-building coral. BMC Genomics 22, 815 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-021- 08114-y
(4)Luu, V. H., Cohen, A. L., de Putron, S. J., Yao, V. M., Schmidt, V., Pham, T., & Sigman, D. M. (2020). Corals are what they eat: Insights on the robustness of the coral skeleton-bound organic matter δ15N proxy from a feeding and light experiment. 2020, PP016–0013.
Staff
Carly Coughlin
Research Assistant
Contact
iacevedo at fas dot harvard dot edu
Publications
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=g8PK3eYAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra
Isabel Acevedo
Lab Technician
Contact
iacevedo at fas dot harvard dot edu
Publications
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=g8PK3eYAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra
Meri Petollari
Lab Administrator
Undergraduates
Nia Faith Lewis
Undergraduate Researcher
Contact
nlewis at college dot harvard dot edu
Former Lab Members
Andrew Cameron
Lab Technician
Contact
acameron at fas dot harvard dot edu
Andrea Berardi
HUH Research Fellow
Contact
Email: andreaberardi at fas dot harvard dot edu
Research Interests
I am broadly interested in the processes of adaptation and speciation, with a particular focus on the role floral color in creating reproductive barriers. I am currently working on a project to understand the evolution of red flower color in North American Silene species, specifically whether exposure to hummingbird pollinators and/or polyploidy events played the biggest roles.
Publications
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=2e43zGYAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
Anna Feller
Postdoc
Contact
Email: annafeller at fas dot harvard dot edu
Research Interests
I am an evolutionary biologist studying the processes and mechanisms that generate and maintain biological diversity. In particular, I want to understand how species evolve and how they can persist as distinct species when they occur in geographic proximity. My previous research in the Seehausen lab at the University of Bern, Switzerland, was focused on investigating components of behavioral reproductive isolation in fishes (sticklebacks and East African cichlids), and on dissecting the genetic architecture of different key traits to reproductive isolation in Lake Victoria cichlids. In the Hopkins Lab, I am studying reproductive isolation and gene flow between several closely related lineages of perennial Phlox flowers that all occur in geographic proximity.
Publications
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=36h3hG0AAAAJ&hl=en
Contact
Email: aggarner at fas dot harvard dot edu
Research Interests
Publications
Garner, Austin G., Benjamin E. Goulet, Matthew C. Farnitano, Y. Franchesco Molina-Henao, and Robin Hopkins. 2018. Genomic signatures of reinforcement. Genes 9(4):191 [PDF]
Peyton Jones
Undergraduate Researcher
Charlie Hale
Research Technician
Contact
Email: cohale at fas dot harvard dot edu
Research Interests
As a research technician in the Hopkins Lab, I contributed to a variety of projects which combined field and greenhouse experiments with genomic analyses to study mechanisms of adaptation and speciation in wildflowers. I previously studied plant-microbe interactions in the Wilson lab at Haverford College and as a Fulbright grantee in the Pyšek lab at the Czech Academy of Sciences. I am currently a graduate student in the Buckler Lab at Cornell University.
Contact
Email: bgoulet at g dot harvard dot edu
Research Interests
I am interested in the genetic processes that drive the formation of new species. As an undergraduate at the University of Rochester, I studied the genetic basis of reproductive isolation in the Drosophila simulans clade. I am currently studying the interplay between hybridization and species formation in three species of Phlox.
Publications
Garner, Austin G., Benjamin E. Goulet, Matthew C. Farnitano, Y. Franchesco Molina-Henao, and Robin Hopkins. 2018. Genomic signatures of reinforcement. Genes 9(4):191 [PDF]
Goulet, Benjamin E., Federico Roda, and Robin Hopkins. 2017. Hybridization in plants: old ideas, new techniques. Plant Physiology 173: 65-78. [PDF]
Contact
Email: schaturvedi@fas.harvard.edu
Research Interests
Publications
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=urW07BwAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
Angie Diana
Research Technician
Contact
Antonio Serrato-Capuchina
Postdoc
Contact
Email: serrato at fas dot harvard dot edu
Research Interests
I am interested in leveraging naturally hybridizing species complexes to uncover patterns in the development of reproductive isolation and better understand the evolution of species. As a graduate student at UNC-Chapel Hill I studied the role a conserved transposable element plays in affecting gene exchange between closely related Drosophila species.
Publications
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=IWW452MAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
Connor Anderson
Undergraduate Researcher
Contact
Undergraduate student at Boston University
Contact
Undergraduate student at Harvard University
Research Interests
Nicole S. López Vega
Summer 2021 E3 REU Participant
Contact
Undergraduate student at University of Puerto Rico – Rio Piedras
Contact
Undergraduate student at Harvard University
Research Interests
I am interested in the impact of climate change on urban ecosystems, specifically how trees will respond to increasingly inhospitable conditions. Working with Meghan and Robin, I am conducting my senior thesis research on Quercus rubra sourced from the Arnold Arboretum, Harvard Forest, and the Harvard College campus in Cambridge. I’m studying the ties between genetic variation and phenology and their implications for future adaptation.
Ana Betancourt
Summer 2021 E3 REU Participant
Contact
Undergraduate student at University of Puerto Rico – Rio Piedras
Contact
Email: blumstein@fas.harvard.edu
Research Interests
Publications
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=n9ztAjgAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
Matt Farnitano
Research Technician
Contact
Email: mfarnitano@fas.harvard.edu
Tel: (617)384-5631
Background
As a research technician in the Hopkins Lab, I was involved with a number of projects studying speciation and differentiation, including hybridization, flower color changes, and pollen-pistil incompatibilities. More generally, I am interested in how genetic and environmental factors interact over time to produce the phenotypic variation we see in our world. I am also an avid bird watcher, and in my spare time I compose and play music. Before coming to the Arboretum, I worked as an aviculturist and bird keeper at the world’s largest collection of waterfowl, in eastern North Carolina. I am currently a graduate student in the Sweigart Lab at the University of Georgia.
Publications
Garner, Austin G., Benjamin E. Goulet, Matthew C. Farnitano, Y. Franchesco Molina-Henao, and Robin Hopkins. 2018. Genomic signatures of reinforcement. Genes 9(4):191 [PDF]
Contact
Undergraduate student at University of Massachusetts Amherst
Research Interests
Contact
Undergraduate student at Harvard University
Research Interests
Andrea Brown is an undergraduate from Harvard University working with graduate student Ben Goulet on the interplay between hybridization and speciation in perennial Phlox.
Contact
Email: henrynorth@fas.harvard.edu
Research Interests
Henry is a master’s student rotating in the Hopkins Lab as part of the MEME program.
Publications
Contact
Email: shaylasalzman@fas.harvard.edu
Webpage: shaylasalzman.com
Research Interests
I am interested in the evolution and molecular mechanisms that underlie plant-insect interactions. Specifically, I am interested in the molecular basis of cross-species interactions and how has the evolution of these interactions shaped the diversity that we see today. I am currently studying Zamia cycads and their weevil pollinators and lepidopteran herbivores with Robin Hopkins and Naomi Pierce at Harvard University. This system is particularly interesting due to its apparent species-specific interactions, highly toxic plant tissue, and threatened conservation statuses.
Publications
Salzman, Shayla, Melissa Whitaker, Naomi Pierce. 2018. Cycad feeding insects share a core gut microbiome. Biological Journal of the Linnean Societydoi:10.1093/biolinnean/bly017 [PDF]
Bruenn, Riva, Valerie Lavenburg, Shayla Salzman. 2017. Don’t judge a plant by it’s flowers. Frontiers for Young Minds 5:31 doi: 10.3389/frym.2017.00031 [PDF]
Whitaker, Melissa RL, Shayla Salzman, Jon Sanders, Martin Kaltenpoth, Naomi Pierce. 2016. Microbial communities of Lycaenid butterflies do not correlate with larval diet. Frontiers in Microbiology 7:1920. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2016.01920 [PDF]
André, Thiago, Shayla Salzman, Tânia Wendt, Chelsea Specht. 2016. Speciation dynamics and biogeography of Neotropical spiral gingers (Costaceae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 103(2016) 55-63 [PDF]
Espeland, Marianne, Jason P.W. Hall, Philip J. DeVries, David C. Less, Mark Cornwall, Yu-Feng Hsu, Li-Wei Wu, Dana L. Campbell, Gerard Talavera, Roger Vila, Shayla Salzman, Sophie Ruehr*, David J. Lohman, Naomi E. Pierce. 2015. Ancient Neotropical origin and recent recolonisation: Phylogeny, biogeography and diversification of the Riodinidae (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 93(2015): 296-306 [PDF]
André, Thiago, Chelsea Specht, Shayla Salzman, Clarisse Palma-Silva, Tânia Wendt. 2015. Evolution of species diversity in the genus Chamaecostus (Costaceae): Molecular phylogenetics and morphometric approaches. Phytotaxa 204(4): 265-276. [PDF]
Salzman, Shayla, Heather E. Driscoll, Tanya Renner, Thiago André, Stacy Shen, Chelsea Specht. 2015. Spiraling into history: A molecular phylogeny and investigation of biogeographic origins and floral evolution for the genus Costus. Systematic Botany40(1): 104-115 [PDF]
Contact
Email: molinahenao@fas.harvard.edu
Webpage: http://scholar.harvard.edu/molinahenao
Research Interests
Understanding the conditions that promote diversification in natural populations has long been a fundamental objective in evolutionary biology. Particularly, I am interested in studying the genetic basis of traits affecting fitness in nature and their potential contribution to speciation. Addressing these aims involves elucidating central questions in evolutionary biology such as: What is the molecular basis of adaptive variation? How do new species arise? What molecular, cellular and developmental mechanisms cause adaptation to different environments?
Publications
Garner, Austin G., Benjamin E. Goulet, Matthew C. Farnitano, Y. Franchesco Molina-Henao, and Robin Hopkins. 2018. Genomic signatures of reinforcement. Genes 9(4):191 [PDF]
Molina-Henao, YF., AL. Guerrero-Chacón, and M. Jaramillo. 2016. Ecological and Geographic Dimensions of Diversification in Piper subgenus Ottonia: A Lineage of Neotropical Rainforest Shrubs. Systematic Botany. 41(2):253-262.
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1600/036364416X691777
Contact
Email: ruizbedoya_tatiana@fas.harvard.edu
Research Interests
Publications
Contact
Undergraduate student at Boston University
Email: smuch@bu.edu
Contact
Email: federicoroda@fas.harvard.edu
Research Interests
I study the genetic foundations of environmental adaptation in plants. I am especially interested in understanding the molecular mechanisms that underlie complex eco-evolutionary processes, such as the role of biotic interactions in creating plant diversity. This functional perspective has become increasingly feasible with technological advances that allow the analysis of variation in genetic networks across individuals, populations, and species.
My research integrates high-throughput genotyping techniques with manipulative experimental approaches to test the role of adaptation in genomic divergence and determine the repeatability of evolution at different levels of biological organization. My interest in molecular evolution started during my undergrad career when I investigated gene-expression patterns associated to stress resistance in a widely cultivated grass. Later, while earning my PhD, I studied the role of natural selection in the divergence of Senecio lautus, a plant that has repeatedly adapted to adjacent environments along the coast of Australia. My research showed that the evolution of similar adaptations in these plants involved different genes but generated predictable patterns of genomic divergence.
I am currently studying the evolution of reproductive isolation in Texas Wildflowers of the Phlox genus. My research aims to determine if mechanisms to prevent self-pollination in these plants are also involved in the rejection of pollen from different Phlox species.
Publications
Roda, Federico, Fábio K. Mendes, Matthew W. Hahn, and Robin Hopkins. 2017. Genomic evidence of gene flow during reinforcement in Texas Phlox. Molecular Ecology 26: 2317-2330. [PDF]
Goulet, Benjamin E., Federico Roda, and Robin Hopkins. 2017. Hybridization in plants: old ideas, new techniques. Plant Physiology 173: 65-78. [PDF]
Roda F, Ambrose L, Walter GM, et al. (2013) Genomic evidence for the parallel evolution of coastal forms in the Senecio lautus complex. Molecular Ecology 22, 2941-2952.
Roda F, Liu H, Wilkinson MJ, et al. (2013) Convergence and divergence during the adaptation to similar environments by an Australian groundsel. Evolution 67, 2515-2529.
Contact
Undergraduate student at Amherst College
Research Interests
Derek Schneider is a DaRin Butz fellow with the Arnold Arboretum. He is working in the Hopkins Lab to study interspecific and self- incompatibility patterns in Phlox drummondii and its sister species Phlox cuspidata. At his home institution of Amherst College, he also studies self-incompatibility.
Contact
Email: hbriggs@uci.edu
Website: www.hmbriggs.org
Research Interests
I am interested in understanding how floral signals influence pollinator foraging behavior. Currently I am conducting experiments to understand the implications of this behavior for pollen movement within and between plant species and ultimately how this affects the strength of selection on plant traits involved in reproductive isolation between plant species.
My dissertation research explored how interspecific interactions between pollinators altered their patterns of plant visitation, and showed how such behavioral plasticity impacted plant reproductive success. My work demonstrated that the functional contributions of pollinator species in a community can be dynamic, and that these dynamic species roles influence ecosystem functions and services.
Publications
Briggs, H.M, L. Anderson, L. Atalla, A. Delva, E. Dobbs and B.J. Brosi. 2015. Heterospecific pollen deposition in Delphinium barbeyi: linking stigmatic pollen loads to reproductive output in the field. Annals of Botany. doi:10.1093/aob/mcv175
Gilbert, G. S., H.M. Briggs, and R. Magarey. 2015. The Impact of Plant Enemies Shows a Phylogenetic Signal. PLoS ONE 10:e0123758.
Brosi, B. J., and H. M. Briggs. 2013. Single pollinator species losses reduce floral fidelity and plant reproductive function. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110:13044–13048
Briggs, H. M., I. Perfecto, and B. J. Brosi. 2013. The Role of the Agricultural Matrix: Coffee Management and Euglossine Bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Euglossini) Communities in Southern Mexico. Environmental Entomology 42:1210–1217.
L. Reid, H. Briggs, S. Crandall, J. Eldon, C. Magdahl, J. Ohayon, E. Olimpi, D. Schweizer, G. Tadesse, and Y. Wang (CenTREAD Working Group). 2012. Tropical Ecology by John Kricher. Quarterly Review of Biology 87:380.
Gabriela Garcia
Temporary Lab Assistant
Contact
Gabriela can be contacted at garcia.gabrielamarie@gmail.com
Research Interests
Gabriela is a 2016 GEM Fellow and will be starting the Ph. D program in Global Change Biology at Tufts in the fall. She is interested in tropical plant physiology and conservation biology.
Jessica Gard
Faculty Assistant
Contact
Email: jgard@fas.harvard.edu
Tel: (617)384-5598
Background
As the faculty assistant for Robin Hopkins, I handle the day-to-day clerical minutiae for the Hopkins lab. Although my background is in the humanities and social sciences, I am invigorated by the challenge of communicating information from the hard sciences to the larger public. On a broader level, this work environment presents an opportunity to explore my longstanding preoccupation with the intersection between human perceptions of nature and human relationships to the environment.
Contact
Email: suni@fas.harvard.edu
Webpage: sevansuni.com/Bio/Home.html
Research Interests
My research interests include how environmental change and ecology influence the evolutionary trajectories and conservation status of populations, and the microevolutionary processes that underlie adaptation and speciation. As a postdoctoral fellow in the Hopkins lab I am investigating both the ecological factors and underlying genetic mechanisms that contribute to adaptation and speciation in Phlox populations.
Contact
Email: cswitzer@fas.harvard.edu
Webpage: http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~cswitzer
Research Interests
I study interactions between plants and pollinators — mainly bumblebees. One special type of pollination, termed buzz pollination, involves bees vibrating the anthers of flowers at high frequencies to release pollen. I quantify bumblebees’ vibrations to gain insight into the relationships between plants and their pollinators.
In addition to analyzing my own data, I help people analyze experimental and observational data. I am happy to teach about statistical analysis and/or consult researchers on analysis techniques.
Diana Bernal-Franco, PhD
Visiting Researcher
Research Interests
Evolution occurs through the accumulation of genetic changes, some of which are driven by natural selection. Different characteristics of a genetic change affect its likelihood to respond to natural selection, however, many questions remain. For instance, does response to natural selection more often involve many genes of small phenotypic effect, or a few genes of large effect? Are new mutations more likely to underlie evolution than standing genetic variation? Do inter-genic interactions, such as pleiotropy, linkage disequilibrium or epistasis, increase the likelihood of a gene responding to natural selection? Or do mutations of certain molecular function, for instance, regulatory or protein-coding mutations, underpin evolutionary change more often? I am interested in exploring the prevalence of the above aspects of genetic changes in evolutionary change. In particular, I have researched the number of genetic changes potentially underlying natural leaf shape variation of Senecio lautus (a herbaceous asteraceae endemic to Australia), the prevalence of new mutations vs. standing genetic variation among these genetic changes, and their likelihood to respond to natural selection in controlled transplant experiments. In the future, I am interested in exploring the genetic changes underlying evolution of another complex trait of plants: secondary metabolites, and characterizing their potential for humans use.
Publications
Roda F, Liu H, Wilkinson MJ, Walter GM, James ME, Bernal DM, Melo MC, Lowe A, Rieseberg LH, Prentis P, Ortiz-Barrientos D. 2013. Convergence and Divergence During the Adaptation To Similar Environments By an Australian Groundsel. Evolution: 2515-2529.
Soto-Suárez M, Bernal D, González C, Szurek B, Guyot R, Tohme J, Verdier V. 2010. In planta gene expression analysis of Xanthomonas oryzae pathovar oryzae, African strain MAI1. BMC microbiology 10: 170.
Gorrón E, Rodríguez F, Bernal D, Rodriguez-R LM, Bernal A, Restrepo S, Tohme J. 2010. A new method for designing degenerate primers and its use in the identification of sequences in Brachiaria showing similarity to apomixis — associated genes. Bioinformatics (Oxford, England) 26: 2053-2054.
Moreno CA, Castillo F, González A, Bernal D, Jaimes Y, Chaparro M, González C, Rodriguez F, Restrepo S, Cotes AM. 2009. Biological and molecular characterization of the response of tomato plants treated with Trichoderma koningiopsis. Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology 74:111-120.
Reilly K, Bernal D, Cortés DF, Gómez-Vásquez R, Tohme J, Beeching JR. 2007. Towards identifying the full set of genes expressed during cassava postharvest physiological deterioration. Plant molecular biology 64: 187-203.
Contact
Email: ejguo619@bu.edu
Interests
I study Environmental Science with a minor in Chemistry at Boston University. I am currently helping with research of the evolution of the Phlox genus.
Contact
Email: jkearney01@college.harvard.edu
Interests
Going into my sophomore year at Harvard College, I plan on studying Economics and Classics. Outside of the classroom, I enjoy playing lacrosse and am a diehard fan of the New England Patriots. So far I have been helping with plant crosses, bagging and counting seeds, and taking measurements of certain aspects of the Phlox Drummondii.
Contact
Email: justindower@college.harvard.edu
Research Biography
Justin Dower studied the pollination behavior of Battus philenor with Heather Briggs in the Hopkins Lab.
Lab Photos
Hopkins Lab, Fall 2018
Hopkins Lab, Winter 2018
Hopkins Lab, Fall 2015
