DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Evolution of Gene Expression in Floral Diversification of Neotropical Gesneriaceae.

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Flowers are among the most common ways that people connect to nature and have enormous potential to engage broad audiences in science and evolution. In addition, an intriguing and complex question in biology is how genetic and ecological processes promoted the rapid evolution and diversification of flowers. This project focuses on a genus in the African violet family, which is comprised of many species with highly colorful and diverse flowers. Thus the researchers can use comparative genomic approaches to investigate how patterns of gene expression vary across multiple species and relate to flower traits important for speciation and pollination. Results of this work will aid researchers and government agencies interested in biodiversity and conservation by providing additional evidence for the complex genetic and ecological interactions between plants and pollinators that have promoted flower diversification.High throughput sequencing of expressed genes from flowers in two developmental stages of 10 species of Achimenes will provide a powerful dataset for investigating evolutionary processes at the genome level. Specifically, the study will further our understanding of the role of gene expression and protein evolution in speciation. The researchers will use transcriptome-wide levels of gene expression across multiple species to associate variation in expression with evolutionary transitions between flower color, shape, and pollination syndrome. They will also determine if target genes expressed during flower development have signatures of positive selection. The genomic data generated will be used to (1) compare patterns of gene expression within and among species, (2) resolve phylogenetic relationships, and (3) identify shared and divergent changes to protein sequences that correlate to transitions in floral form and pollination.