Jim Leebens-Mack

Department of Plant Biology

University of Georgia

Athens, GA 30602

email: jleebensmack at plantbio dot uga dot edu

phone: 706-583-5573

FAX: 707-542-1805

Joel McNeal - (jmcneal at plantbio dot uga dot edu)

Research Interests:

My PhD. research (Penn State) involved using systematics to gain a better understanding of molecular evolutionary phenomen a in parasitic plants, particularly the genus Cuscuta (dodders). A large part of my work has involved sequencing entire plastid genomes from Cuscuta and interpreting the effects of gene loss and sequence evolution on plastid f unction. I have also worked on phytochrome evolution and systematics of the parasitic family Orobanchaceae. In Jim's lab , I am sequencing selected monocot plastid genomes for phylogenetic study and also continuing work on evolution of parasit ism.

Michael McKain (mmckain at plantbio dot uga dot edu)

Research Interests:

Michale is a PhD student with his undergraduate degree from Wabash College. Michael's research interests include speciation, anceint polyploidy, hybridization and molecular evolution. Micheal's dissertation research focuses on the evolutionary history of the Agavaceae. He is using whole plastid genomes and transcriptome data to resolve relationships, divergence times and genome evolution.

Ling Dong

Research Interests:

Ling is a PhD student with her undergraduate degree from Sichaun University. Ling is interested in plant systematics and evolutionary ecology. Ling is investigating the diversification of new world Psychotria species.

Jeremy Rentsch (jrentsch at plantbio dot uga dot edu)

Research Interests:

Jeremy is a PhD student with a bachelor's degree from Kent State University. Jeremy is investigating plant-pollinator relationships, gene flow and genetic structure within and among yuccas of the southeastern U.S.

Savavanaraj (Raj) Ayyampalayam (raj at plantbio dot uga dot edu)

Raj came to the lab with a PhD in chemistry and a desire to apply his computation skills to research in comparative genomics. Raj manages development, refinement and maintenance of our sequence databases and analysis tools.

Chang Liu (cliu at plantbio dot uga dot edu)

Chang is our lab manager and technician extraordinaire. Chang holds a masters degree in plant systematics from Idaho State University. Chang has mad skills at the bench and she contributes to all of our plastid genome and transcriptome sequencing projects.

Hongyan Shan (hshan at plantbio dot uga dot edu)

Research Interests:

Ling is now an assistant professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Botany in Beijing. Her research interests include: (1) the molecular mechanism of asparagus sex determination; (2) molecular evolutionary analyses of changes in mode of selection associated with speciation and gene duplication events; (3) structural, evolutionary and functional studies of floral MADS-box genes and the evolution of protein-protein interaction patterns involved in floral development in basal eudicots.

Alexa Telgmann - (alexarb at plantbio dot uga dot edu)

Research Interests:

Alexa is now a geneticist and plant breeder with KWS in Germany. Alexa's dissertation research with Christian Jung at Christian-Albrechts-Universität, Kiel involved map-based cloning of the region responsible for sex-determination in garden asparagus. Alexa expanded on this work at the University of Georgia, with real time PCR based expression profiling of developing female and male flower buds. In addition, Alexa performed florescence in situ hybridization (FISH) analyses in collaboration with Chris Pires and Mike Kinney (University of Missouri).