Systematics and Phylogenetics

The study of plant form using the techniques of comparative genomics, molecular developmental biology and evolutionary biology.

Ecology and evolutionary biology; the distribution of biodiversity and the challenges posed to its conservation through recent changes to the environment.

Genome evolution, spliceosomal intron evolution, parasitic adaptation – focusing on microsporidia, a highly derived group of parasitic fungi.

My lab group works on the evolution, phylogenetics and comparative genomics of diverse groups of land plants (embryophytes), with a particular focus on monocots, a flowering-plant clade that includes the major crop plants that sustain human civilization. 

Early eukaryote evolution, molecular phylogeny, protistology.

Marine invertebrate zoology, protozoology, evolutionary morphology & phylogenetics.

Spider systematics and evolution.

Marine phycology; biomechanics of macroalgae.

Microbiome of coastal marine organisms; eukaryotes in the microbiome

Adaptation, Domestication, Crop Evolution, Hybridization, Speciation, Weed Evolution

The biology of viruses that infect marine phytoplankton and bacteria, and the role of these viruses in population dynamics and geochemical cycles.

Plant molecular systematic and evolution; the evolution of asexual polyploid complexes in higher plants.