My name is Whitaker Hoskins and I am a masters student at the University of Tennessee in the Small Lab. My research interests include adaptive traits in plants and fungi, plant-fungal interactions, biogeography, plant and fungal taxonomy, and phylogenetic history. My current project looks to understand the genetic and morphological variation within section Furcaria of the Hibiscus genus. This family is located in Australia and contains several interesting characters. These include a hexaploid cytotype (six sets of chromosomes) with several genome groups indicated by the letters G,J, and V from Menzel (1983). I am interested in the intra-specific variation within these species and intra-individual variation within their ploidy groups.
My specific questions
My specific questions
- Does the Australian GJV genome group show high or low levels of gene diversity between species in the selected regions? How does this relate to the origin of the hexaploids from tetraploids and diploids?
- Using information on gene diversity between individuals and species, what does this tell us about the phylogenetic relationships between these species?
I previously worked on a project with Dr. Karen Hughes on a possible new species of Pycnoporus fungi. I hope to collect it again and publish a paper soon.