I am a member of the Taylor lab at the University of Virginia in the Ph.D. program.  My interests are in the evolution of plant secondary metabolism.  I am currently focusing on the ecology and evolution of the flavonoid pathway using population and quantitative genetic techniques.

The flavonoid pathway produces many subgroups of flavonoids and can be considered as an complex phenotype.  Each of the flavonoid subgroups are responsible for ecological roles, such as pigmentation, defense against herbivory, and protection against UV damage.  Using Silene vulgaris, I am working to describe adaptive divergence, genetic constraints, and phenotypic correlations among the flavonoid subgroups and their ecological roles, and how this contributes to the evolution of the flavonoid pathway.  I am using a combination of HPLC, qPCR, population and quantitative genetics to address this.

Most of my questions are addressed in the lab and in the field.  I do my field work in the French Alps at and around the University of Grenoble’s Station Alpine Joseph Fourier (SAJF).

Flavonoid Expression Patterns Along Altitudinal Gradients

A series of studies conducted by Mastenbroek and colleages (1983, 1984) discovered variable flavonoid production in Silene latifolia among populations in Europe.  I am currently using HPLC and gene expression techniques to determine which genes are responsible for the variable production of the flavonoids in S. vulgaris, and if there is any effect of population structure on the distribution of flavotypes.

I use an altitudinal gradient to address differences in pathway regulation, where plants at higher altitudes need more protection against UV-B than do lower populations.  Since flavonols are responsible for protection against UV-B, changes in allocation to anthocyanin (pigmentation) or flavone (herbivore defense) production may occur due to pathway structure.  Ecological measurements in the field are paired with HPLC and qPCR data to address this.

Metabolomics

I am interested in combining HPLC profiling techniques with our upcoming transcriptome data, quantitative genetics, and QTL analysis to thoroughly investigate the intricacies of the flavonoid biosynthetic pathway in Silene.

The Evolution of Floral Color in Silene

Floral color is not monophyletic in Silene species.  I am currently working with an undergraduate to sequence regulatory and structural genes in the anthocyanin pathway among the Silene species to explore this topic.