Dr. Kathryn Turner Idaho State University Ecological genomics of invasive and introduced plants Humans have introduced species both intentionally and unintentionally to novel environments. Introduced and invasive species represent excellent opportunities to study the evolutionary potential of traits and biotic interactions important to success in their new environments. While evolutionary studies often describe adaptation to novel environments over millions of years, rapid evolution can occur over decades, in species under strong selective pressure, such as introduced and invasive species. Typically, our knowledge of rapid evolution in contemporary populations is based on current and static patterns of genetic variation in those populations. Since static patterns may be the result of multiple and opposing processes, such patterns reveal little about the initial stages or key transitions of rapid adaptation to environmental change. Another key gap in our understanding of the process of adaptation to novel environments in plants is the interaction between available genetic diversity in the adapting species and that species’ microbiome. Temporally referenced data may help us understand how the interaction between host and microbiome enables species to adapt to rapid environmental change. I will present work on the current patterns of genomic diversity in an heavily human dispersed ornamental wildflower, Texas Bluebonnet (Lupinus texensis, Fabaceae), and ongoing work investigating historical patterns of genomic and metagenomic diversity using herbarium specimens in an invasive crop weed, Blue Mustard (Chorispora tenella, Brassicaceae).
Bio: I’m an evolutionary ecologist interested in introductions, range expansions, biological invasions, and rapid evolution. I went to undergrad at the University of Texas at Austin where I got a BS in Plant Biology and a BA in Asian Studies. I then worked as a field and lab technician in Texas, Arizona, and Indiana for 3 years. I completed my PhD at the University of British Columbia with Dr. Loren Rieseberg in 2015. After graduating, I held an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship at Colorado State University with Dr. Ruth Hufbauer and Dr. John McKay. I was then an Eberly Postdoctoral Fellow at Pennsylvania State University with Dr. Jesse Lasky. I joined the Department of Biological Sciences at Idaho State University as an Assistant Professor in 2019. Comments are closed.
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