office 434-982-5010
lab 434-982-5599
fax 434-982-5626  

People in the lab
Laura F. Galloway
publications

post-doc:
Kevin Burgess

graduate students:
Biology PhD:
Ashley Dai
Lindsay Dierkes Francis Kilkenny
Conservation MA:
Elysa Miller
Huyen Truong

undergraduates:
Megan Hofmeister
Hyun Song

Photos 

For prospective graduate students

Maternal effects on life history
***** Maternal effects in the news!! *****

Laura Galloway
Parents may influence their offspring through genetic and environmental factors. We are using three approaches to evaluate intergenerational effects on life history evolution in the native wildflower Campanulastrum americanum (until recently Campanula americana). Our work focuses on the timing of seed germination because C. americanum seeds that germinate in the fall grow as annuals while those that germinate in the spring become biennials. Therefore maternal effects on germination timing will influence life span, fecundity and patterns of survivorship.

Parental Environmental Effects with Julie Etterson (Univ. of Minnesota, Duluth) Maternal and paternal environments may influence offspring characters. We found that parental light levels influence offspring germination and life history in Campanulastrum americanum. We are currently conducting a quantitative genetics study to evaluate maternal genetic and environmental effects on life history with the goal of understanding the potential for maternal effects to contribute to adaptive evolution. Publications. Effect of Maternal Phenology on Offspring Life History with Kevin Burgess Timing of flowering influences the timing of fruit maturation in C. americanum. Seeds from early season flowers ripen before those of later season flowers and have a greater potential to germinate in the fall as annuals. Therefore selection favoring the annual life history may act to either alter timing of seed germination or timing of flowering. We are currently creating early and late flowering individuals with artificial selection to determine the extent to which intergenerational selection influences trait evolution. Publications.

Evolution of Polyploids
Polyploidy, a doubling of the chromosome number, is a very common evolutionary change in plants. In particular autopolyploidy ( within species chromosome doubling), results in changes in the amount, but not the type, of nuclear genetic material. Having twice as much genetic material may influence the evolution of polyploid species. For example, polyploids are predicted to have reduced levels of inbreeding depression relative to diploids because the probability of expressing recessive deleterious alleles is much lower if there are four alleles at a locus instead of the two present in diploids. Similarly, polyploids may accumulate genetic differentiation among populations more rapidly than diploids if either mutation accumulation increases with more loci or genetic changes in the "extra" gene copies are less likely to be removed by selection. We are conducting studies to address both of these ideas.

Francis Kilkenny  I study the role of intraspecific hybridization in the North American range expansion of the invasive vine Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica). If populations are genetically differentiated, hybridization between populations may generate evolutionary novelty and allow hybrid individuals to occupy niches separate from either parent. Enhanced performance in the hybrid generations may occur through heterosis or, in later generations, from the rise novel traits through genomic recombination. I am experimentally testing this hypothesis by constructing F1 and F2 hybrid generations from crosses between and among populations in the core and margin of the current range. Offspring will be planted in common gardens in the core, at the margin and beyond the range edge to compare the fitness of hybrid individuals and non-hybrid individuals. The role of hybridization in range expansion may depend on the population genetic structure within and at the edge of the range. Therefore I am also using population genetics approaches to determine how genetic variation is distributed within and between populations and regions, as well as the level of admixture between populations.

Elysa Miller I am exploring the range size of the invasive species Japanese Honeysuckle. The edge of species range has been slowly moving north since the 1950's. I am investigating whether this expansion is due to the evolution of cold tolerance. Cold tolerance may differ between seed, seedling and adult stages of the life cycle. I am evaluating each of these stages using plants from both the margin and the core of the species range. I am in the Environmental and Biological Conservation M.A. Program and plan to work for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation when I graduate.

Past lab members....

Undergraduate Research
Current Projects:

Contact Laura Galloway (lgalloway@virginia.edu) if you are interested in graduate studies or undergraduate research at UVA or Mountain Lake Biological Station

See also:
Evolution & Population Biology, University of Virginia
Biology Department, University of Virginia
Mountain Lake Biological Station