I’m an NSF GRFP Fellow and Auburn PhD student working in the CoLab at the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology.
I harness cutting-edge sequencing and computational techniques to build, visualize, and compare the genomes of diverse plants to unlock the secrets of their reproductive biology.
I study the Myricaceae family, characterizing the sex chromosomes of Morella species and studying the evolution of other sexual systems in the family.
My work in this area touches on (1) the relationship between polyploidy and sex chromosome evolution, (2) the expansion, contraction and turnover of sex-determining regions (SDRs), and (3) the identification of candidate sex-determining genes.
I am fascinated by the role of repetitive elements in the emergence and maintenance of regions of low recombination, such as centromeres and sex-determining regions.
As sequencing technology improves, I believe we will continue to see the incredible impact that these elements play in genome evolution, diversity, and functionality.
While a handful of genes may ultimately control the switch to dioecy in plants, other floral genes that accumulate in the sex-determining regions (SDRs) and pseudoautosomal regions (PAR) of sex chromosomes.
I study these “extra” genes in diverse dioecious species, which can contribute substantially to sexual phenotypes and may have played a critical role in the evolution of sex chromosomes.