Comparative biology
Unlike flips of a coin or colored marbles drawn from a bag, the features of life are not randomly distributed. Instead, they reflect a complicated, billions-of-years old history. Comparative biology, and specifically phylogenetic comparative biology, draws inferences by comparing the similarities and differences between lineages while explicitly incorporating evolutionary history. By incorporating this history, comparative biology can be used to reconstruct things like the associations between traits and the order in which traits change. I apply comparative methods in my work to understand how complex phenotypes (e.g., Crassulacean acid metabolism or C4 photosynthesis) assemble over evolutionary time.
The evolution of photosynthetic anatomy
The Portullugo (Caryophyllales) contains multiple transitions in photosynthetic phenotypes and incredible diversity in plant forms. I used phylogenetic comparative methods to demonstrate the co-evolution of photosynthetic anatomy and physiology. Zooming out to look across all vascular plants, I was able to use machine learning to predict these photosynthetic phenotypes using anatomical data.
Dissecting photosynthetic pathways
In a comparative transcriptomic experiment of two Portulaca species, I revealed an ancient, shared CAM gene module and showed that, despite convergence in physiology, there are many differences in the genetic composition of C4 in these species that reflect distinct histories.
Gene family dynamics in desiccation tolerant species
Desiccation tolerant plants can tolerate the loss of 90%+ of their relative water content. In a study of the convergent evolution of desiccation tolerance led by Dr. Rose Marks, I provided a comparative genomic analysis of the dynamics of a critical gene family, the Early Light-Induced Proteins (ELIPs). This analysis showed that the ELIP gene family is uniquely expanded in desiccation tolerant species from mosses to flowering plants.
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