Abstract Detail

Kaplan Memorial Lecture - Lena Hileman

Patterns and processes of floral diversification in the wildflower genus Penstemon.

Penstemon is a large and phenotypically diverse lineage of North American wildflowers ideally suited to address fundamental questions of trait evolution. Therefore, for multiple years now we have been working in Penstemon as a model with a focus on understanding patterns and processes of floral diversification. Our overarching goals are to shed light on genetic and developmental processes that facilitate repeated evolution of complex floral traits, and to uncover the evolutionary patterns that can emerge from massive trait parallelism. Penstemon is an excellent model for addressing these specific questions because during Penstemon diversification, species with flowers adapted to hummingbirds as pollinators have evolved many times within lineages ancestrally adapted to Hymenoptera as pollinators. Therefore, Penstemon is an amazing natural experiment in the repeated transition of complex floral traits, and this forms the foundation of our past and ongoing research. Through our phylogenetic, quantitative and population genomic research we thus far have provided deeper insights into the key traits associated with pollinator adaptation, determined how pollinator adaptation associates with patterns of diversification, uncovered genetic architecture underlying shifts to hummingbird adaptation, and narrowed causal genomic regions to potential candidate genes responsible for pollinator evolution.

1 - University of Kansas, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, 1200 Sunnyside Ave, Lawrence, KS, 66045, United States

Keywords:
Penstemon
floral evolution
quantitative genetics
macroevolution.

Presentation Type: Special Presentations
Number: S06001
Abstract ID:376
Candidate for Awards:None