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

Hongyan Shan (hshan at plantbio dot uga dot edu)

Research Interests:

(1) Study of 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.

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 phenomena 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 function. 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 parasitism.

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

Research Interests:

Garden asparagus (Asparagus officinalis) is an economically important vegetable species. My dissertation research in the lab of Christian Jung at Christian-Albrechts-Universität, Kiel has involved map-based cloning of the region responsible for sex-determination in garden asparagus. I am expanding on this work at the University of Georgia, with microarray based expression profiling of developing female and male flower buds. Genes exhibiting sex-biased expression will be mapped. In addition, florescence in situ hybridization (FISH) analysis will be carried out in collaboration with Chris Pires and Mike Kinney (University of Missouri).

Michael McKain (mmckain at plantbio dot uga dot edu)

Research Interests:

First year PhD student from Wabash College with interests in speciation, hybridization and molecular evolution

Ling Dong

Research Interests:

First year PhD student from Sichaun University with interests in plant systematics and evolutionary ecology