Lena Hileman
University of Kansas, KS·Ecology & Evolution
How do DNA differences between individuals produce the trait differences that set one species apart from another? Biologists have usually tackled this one striking trait at a time, finding the genetic variant behind each.
- Fields
Ecology & Evolution
Genetics
Plant Science & Agriculture
- Topics
Penstemon
pollination syndromes
floral evolution
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2028
What they work on
- Confirm about twenty genomic regions that distinguish bee- from hummingbird-pollinated Penstemon species, using genome-wide association mapping to link them to floral syndrome traits.
- Dissect these narrow, one-to-two-gene loci with population genomic, transcriptomic and gene-function prediction methods to reconstruct how the complex floral trait package was assembled.
- Determine whether regulatory or protein-coding mutations contribute more to floral adaptation, and how selection maintains multi-locus species differences despite gene flow and recombination.
More about the research
That approach reveals little about how changes spread across a whole genome build and maintain new species with complex, interlinked differences. This collaborative project works the other way: first find the exact DNA differences that separate closely related species, then confirm which traits those differences produce.
Why it matters
This basic research shows how many scattered genetic changes combine into complex traits that keep species distinct, even when genes move between them. The methods for linking genome differences to complex traits could be applied by biologists working on other organisms across the tree of life.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Evangeline Ballerini
California State University-Sacramento, CA·Ecology & Evolution
Describe nectar volume and chemistry in four Aquilegia species adapted to bees, hummingbirds or hawk moths, using developmental assays, transcriptomics and metabolomics.
John E Pool
University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI·Ecology & Evolution
Develop a genomic authentication pipeline that detects contamination in Drosophila lab stocks and characterizes their genomes, applying it to 200 widely studied stocks.
Patricia Wittkopp
University of Michigan, MI·Genetics
Identify the genes and specific DNA changes behind trait differences within and between fruit fly (Drosophila) species, and determine how they alter molecular, cellular and developmental processes.
The school
University of Kansas: 26 labs on PI Pages, $546M a year on research, 351 research doctorates a year.
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