The Influence of Genomic Organization on the Diversity of Angiosperms

Abstract

The origin and rapid diversification of flowering plants has captured the interest of scientists across fields of study including molecular phylogenetics, evolutionary and developmental genetics, morphology, paleobotany, and bioinformatics to name a few. In my dissertation, I use both traditional synteny mapping and a novel approach utilizing large data sets and data networks to elucidate a deeper evolutionary history of gene families that traditional phylogenetic approaches have difficulty reaching. In a large collaborative consortium we identified carnivorous plants with independent carnivorous origins that revealed repeated co-options of stress-responsive proteins coupled with convergent nucleotide substitutions to acquire digestive physiology. These results imply constraints on the available routes to evolve plant carnivory and the influence of transposable elements on the genomic architecture.