My research focuses on the genetic basis of evolution in plant species: how is the genetic variation that we find within a species shaped by natural selection, population history, and other evolutionary forces? One way that I look at this question is by using crop domestication as a model for rapid evolutionary change. The wealth of genetic and genomic information available for crops makes it possible to directly examine the molecular evolution of genes underlying traits that have been selected upon during domestication. In my lab we also study the evolutionary genetics of wild species. Topics of interest include the genetic basis of adaptive variation, evolutionary genomics of weedy crop relatives, and the forces affecting genome-wide patterns of linkage disequilibrium and nucleotide diversity.

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