The below professors and institutions hosted undergraduate researchers during the summers of 2021 and 2022 as part of the CREU (CPING Research Experiences for Undergraduates) program. These professors also both participated and hosted bioinformatics-related workshops during these summers.
CPING Professors
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Alabama
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Dr. Frost is an assistant professor at the University of South Alabama in Mobile with interests in biogeography, biodiversity hotspots, and bioinformatics with herbarium specimen-based phylogenomic datasets. She is interested in documenting and understanding the high biodiversity in the Mobile River delta and Gulf Coast area as well as threats to that biodiversity, like climate change and invasive species. CPING research will examine populations of the exotic species Sporobolus pyramidalis, giant rat’s tail grass, and their interactions with native Sporobolus jacquemontii, American rat’s tail grass.
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Dr. Koelling a plant evolutionary biologist with particular interest in the evolution of plant mating systems, the mechanisms of plant speciation, and plant evolutionary genetics. She currently studies these topics using the common yellow monkeyflower (Mimulus guttatus), a wildflower endemic to the Western United States, as well as two of Alabama’s native azalea species (Rhododendron cumberlandense and Rhododendron prunifolium). Students who work with Dr. Koelling on these projects will have the opportunity to learn a variety of laboratory, greenhouse, and field research techniques.
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Arkansas
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Dr. Latvis is interested in speciation and hybridization, particularly within the parasitic plant family Orobanchaceae. Her CPING research will focus on the roles hybridization and admixture with native Salsola species have played on establishment of the invasive Russian thistle, Salsola tragus.
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Idaho
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In the Turner Lab at ISU, we focus on evolutionary ecology and invasion biology. We combine experimental, genomic, ancient DNA, and geo-referenced distribution data to investigate plant ecological genetics, particularly rapid adaptation to novel environments and the evolution of ecologically important traits. This REU student will work with genomic data from contemporary collections of the invasive plant diffuse knapweed (Centaurea diffusa) and have the opportunity to learn aDNA techniques working with herbarium specimens.
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Kansas
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A CREU student in my lab will study Lygodium japonicum, a species native to Asia which has been introduced to North America. The student will build Illumina libraries and sequence the plastid genome of L. japonicum individuals from the native and introduced range, with the goal of identifying the source area for the introduced populations and assessing the number of introductions of this species.
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Louisiana |
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Differences in drought tolerance may influence how non-native species invade habitats. In this summer REU, the student will compare the drought response of an invasive species, Trifolium repens (white clover), to native species using RNA sequencing. This research will help us understand how invasive species acclimate or evolve in their invasive range.
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Dr. Kooyers is interested in the prevalence, importance and mechanisms underlying adaptation in natural plant populations. His CPING research focuses on the impact of selection and admixture during invasions of Trifolium repens into North America specifically using the establishment of spatial variation in defensive cyanide production as a model trait.
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Mississippi
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Dr. Alford studies the relationships of flowering plants, especially those of tropical willow relatives (Salicaceae) and spurges (Euphorbia, Euphorbiaceae) of the southeastern United States. We will collect data to better understand these relationships and the degree to which hybridization and polyploidy have complicated our understanding.
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Montana
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Dr. Comer’s research is aimed at answering three general questions: 1) what is it (Taxonomy), 2) what is it related to (Classification), and 3) how can observed patterns be explained (Evolutionary Biology). He utilizes a combination of field, herbarium, and lab work to address these questions over a range of taxonomic levels, population to familial. His ongoing research projects prioritize Montana plants and include floristic, palynological (pollen), metal accumulation, and invasive plant genomics studies.
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Dr. Thum's laboratory generally focuses on molecular ecology and evolutionary genetics, with a specific emphasis on invasive aquatic plants. Many of the lab’s projects fall under the general questions of how genetic diversity impacts management outcomes, and how management impacts genetic diversity. They increasingly utilize genomic approaches such as genotyping-by-sequencing and RNA-Seq.
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Nebraska
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In the Kellar lab, researchers use morphological and molecular data to infer phylogenies of various plant groups. We apply the information from evolutionary history to investigations about taxonomic history, biodiversity, invasive species, and conservation. We combine field, lab, and herbarium work with computational analyses to answer our research questions.
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New Hampshire
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Dr. Sigel is herbarium curator at University of Hew Hampshire with interests in the patterns and processes that shape plant evolution and diversity, particularly among ferns. Her CPING research investigates the genetic diversity of the invasive wetland fern, giant Salvinia, Salvinia molesta, which is unusually high for an asexual allopolyploid species.
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New Mexico
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Dr. Fuentes-Soriano research interests focus on understanding the diversification and evolutionary innovations of flowering plants, related to their anatomy, palynology, cytogenetics, ecology, and genomics. To tackle these issues from a variety of perspectives Dr. Fuentes-Soriano have ground her research in the study of herbaria collections data, complementing fieldwork and phylogenetic analyses. Her CPING project research will focus on studying impacts of genome duplication in the evolutionary history of pervasive and narrow endemic species living in drylands.
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North Dakota
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Craig Whippo
Dickinson State University CPING Regional Mentor [email protected] *No longer at Dickinson State |
Dr. Whippo research focuses on plant environmental physiology and molecular biology. He uses a combination of field, greenhouse, and growth room experiments to measure photosynthesis, respiration, leaf optical properties, and general plant growth and morphology. For the CPING project, his lab will focus understanding the connection between plant physiology and genomics of invasive plants in Western North Dakota.
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South Carolina
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We are interested in the conservation of native plants and how the introduction of non-native invasive plants may disrupt the ecology and distribution of native species. We are also interested in the formation of viable hybrids and how they may facilitate geneflow between sexually compatible, but generally reproductively isolated species.
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South Dakota
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My work focuses broadly on understanding how biochemical pathways evolve. Metabolic pathways underlie various cellular processes, yet it is unknown how pathways are constructed and by what genetic, biochemical, and biophysical mechanisms pathways evolve. I use plant hybridization as a model for understanding the consequences of bringing separate genomes (and thus metabolomes) together.
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West Virginia
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Dr. Barrett is interested in plant speciation and diversity, particularly among monocots. His CPING research focuses on genetic variation in Japanese stiltgrass, Microstegium vimineum, particularly with respect to transposable element variation and whether TEs play a role in adaptation of invasives to novel environments.
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Dr. Puppo is an assistant professor at Marshall University with interests in plant diversification and plant-pollinator interactions. A CREU student in my lab will learn about herbarium collections, laboratory protocols like DNA extraction, PCR amplification, sequencing, and data analyses.
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Vermont |
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Michael Sundue
University of Vermont CPING Regional Mentor [email protected] *Now at: Royal Botanical Gardens Edinburgh |
Dr. Sundue is interested in the diversity and evolution of ferns and lycophytes. His CPING project was to look for genetic signatures of range extension in the ebony spleenwort, a fern that has been responding to urbanization by occupying new habitats such as old masonry in eastern north American cities.
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