Research

Species distributions are shaped by a complex interplay of ecological and genetic factors that are often hard to disentangle. ECORAMA – Ecology and evolution of species range margins – aims to understand the limits to range margins using a multi-country common garden approach. 

ECORAMA

Our site at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RGBE) nursery represents a location beyond the native range of the focal taxon Mercurialis annua. We are monitoring the performance of different genotypes over multiple years. 

Nursery at RBGE

Tropical rain forests are the most species-rich habitat on the planet, yet the factors underlying this diversity remain poorly known. In 2024 we finished a NERC funded project (with Rowan Schley and Toby Pennington) to address whether hybridisation is a major driver of evolutionary radiation in the Amazonian tree genus Inga. Hybridisation proved to be common and occurred close to the origin of a number of diverse Inga clades (see paper linked below). 

Do Reticulate Relationships Between Tropical Trees Drive Diversification? Insights from Inga (Fabaceae)

Rowan Schley   |   Toby Pennington

You can read more about our Euphrasia research on the dedicated Euphrasia webpage.

Euphrasia website

One of the greatest challenges in the study of young floras is explaining how new species evolve when they are likely to experience rampant gene flow from congeneric taxa. In my previous work, I showed that strong population genetic structure in conjunction with rapidly evolving reproductive barriers contribute to the exceptional species diversity found in the tropical genus Begonia. Mario Duran (PhD Student) is continuing research on divergence-with-gene flow, in the classic model plant species Antirrhinum. This work, in collaboration with Andrew Hudson, involves RAD sequencing analysis of populations from a recent species radiation in the Sierra Nevada. This is one of a number of collaborative RAD projects ongoing in the lab, such as our long-running work trying to resolve the phylogenetic relationships of the recent rapid radiations of Vireya Rhododendrons in South East Asia (with Valerie Soza, Ben Hall and George Argent).

Andrew Hudson   |   Valerie Soza   |   Ben Hall

Plants demonstrate a remarkable range of adaptive variation: from growing in some of the harshest environments on earth, to finding remarkable sources of nutrients through parasitism or carnivory. We are using new genomic approaches to find the genes underlying the major adaptive transitions. 

Parasitism is a remarkable trait that has involved numerous times independently in different plant groups. In 2015, we were awarded a NERC International Opportunities Fund grant to generate preliminary data on the genetic basis of plant parasitism in the hemiparasitic plant Euphrasia. In collaboration with Claude dePamphilis, Rob Ness, and Galina Gussarova, we have sequenced a draft genome, plastid genomes, and are generating RNA-seq data from plants with and without suitable hosts. This research is aimed to understand the genetic changes associated with the transition to a parasitic lifestyle. 

Claude dePamphilis   |   Rob Ness   |   Galina Gussarova

One dramatic yet surprisingly common transition in plants is from perenniality to annuality. In my post-doc with Jannice Friedman in Syracuse University, Upstate New York, I studied the genetic basis of this transition in the common monkey flower Mimulus guttatus. We showed that a major chromosomal inversion maintains this life-history difference across the species range despite high levels of gene flow. These results (see papers linked below) add to our growing knowledge of the genetic basis of divergence with gene flow.

Adaptive divergence in the monkey flower Mimulus guttatus is maintained by a chromosomal inversion

The extent and genetic basis of phenotypic divergence in life history traits in Mimulus guttatus

Publications