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Laboratory of Sean Graham
Research Interests
My lab group works on a broad variety of problems in plant systematics and evolution. Research goals in the lab include inference of the major details of the land-plant portion of the Tree of Life, application of reliable phylogenies to various evolutionary questions and characterization of biodiversity in understudied lineages. I am also interested in the development and application of analytical advances to difficult problems in plant systematics.
Current Research Projects
Deep Plant Phylogeny - The relationships of the earliest diverging branches of plant phylogeny are known only in fragmentary form. A major focus is to infer the broad "backbone" of plant phylogeny. We are applying regions of the plastid and nuclear genomes that have been previously unexplored (or underutilized) for plant molecular systematic work, using more data per taxon than is commonly used in molecular systematic studies (e.g., Graham & Olmstead, 2000). My lab group is currently addressing the higher-order relationships of the monocots, basal angiosperms, cycads (Rai et al., 2003), conifers, seed plants, pteridophytes and bryophytes.
Evolutionary Biodiversity - We have a number of molecular systematic, taxonomic and population genetic studies on taxa of particular interest. A subset of studies examine understudied, early-diverging lineages (e.g., Acorus, the probable sister group of all other monocots). We are also using phylogenies as a framework for studying various evolutionary problems (e.g., the origin of heterostyly), and to address unsolved phylogenetic mysteries (e.g., the position of the living fossil Wollemia nobilis in the conifer family Araucariaceae).
Comparative Plastid Genomics - The regions we use for phylogenetic work provide insights into the molecular evolution of the plastid genome. We have characterized multiple classes of plastid genome structural mutations (e.g., Graham et al., 2000, McPherson et al, 2004) that provide new insights into both process (mutational dynamics), and pattern (by acting as phylogenetic markers). Ongoing comparative studies include an examination of plastid genome dissolution in the mycoheterotrophic monocots.
Lab Personnel
- Diana Percy, PDF
- Solveig Adair, M.Sc. candidate
- Ying Chang, Ph.D. candidate
- Will Iles, M.Sc. candidate
- Hardeep Rai, Ph.D. candidate
- Emma Harrower, B.Sc. (directed studies)
Lab Alumni
- Jeffrey Saarela (Ph.D., 2007, now a Research Scientist at Canadian Museum of Nature)
- Jessie Zgurski (M.Sc., 2004, now a Ph.D. student at the University of Alberta)
- Marc McPherson (M.Sc., 2003, now a Ph.D. student at the University of Alberta)
- Melissa Piercey (M.Sc., 2003, now at Forensica Analytical)
- Martina Krieger (M.Sc., 2002, now at Alberta Environment)
Additional Publications
Please note: publications indexed by PubMed are displayed here. Listed below are papers not indexed by PubMed.
Graham SW, Zgurski JM, McPherson MA, Cherniawsky DM, Saarela JM, Horne EFC, Smith SY, Wong WA, O'Brien HE, Biron VL, Pires JC, Olmstead RG, Chase MW and Rai HS
Robust inference of monocot deep phylogeny using an expanded multigene plastid data set.
2006
Pp. 3-21 in: Columbus JT, Friar EA, Porter JM, Prince LM and Simpson MG (eds.), Monocots: comparative biology and evolution (excluding Poales), Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, Claremont, California, USA.
Chase MW, Fay MF, Devey DS, Maurin O, Rønsted N, Davies TJ, Pillon Y, Petersen G, Seberg O, Tamura MN, Asmussen CB, Hilu K, Borsch T, Davis JI, Stevenson DW, Pires JC, Givnish TJ, Sytsma KJ, McPherson MA, Graham SW and Rai HS
Multigene analyses of monocot relationships: a summary.
2006
Pp. 63-75 in: Columbus JT, Friar EA, Porter JM, Prince LM and Simpson MG (eds.), Monocots: comparative biology and evolution (excluding Poales), Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, Claremont, California, USA.
Chang Y, Chang WK, Graham SW and Tan BC
Molecular evidence for the systematic positions of two enigmatic mosses: Pterogonidium pulchellum (Sematophyllaceae, Musci) and Piloecium pseudorufescens (Myuriaceae, Musci).
CANADIAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY
84:501-507. 2006.
Graham SW, Barrett SC
Phylogenetic reconstruction of the evolution of stylar polymorphisms in Narcissus (Amaryllidaceae)
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY
91: 1007-1021. 2004.
McPherson MA, Fay MF, Chase MW, Graham SW
Parallel loss of a slowly evolving intron from two closely related families in Asparagales.
SYSTEMATIC BOTANY
29(2): 296-307. 2004.
Rai HS, O'Brien HE, Reeves PA, Olmstead RG, Graham SW
Inference of higher-order relationships in the cycads from a large chloroplast data set
MOLECULAR PHYLOGENETICS AND EVOLUTION 29(2): 350-9 NOV 2003
Graham SW, Olmstead RG, Barrett SC
Rooting phylogenetic trees with distant outgroups: a case study from the commelinoid monocots
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
19 (10): 1769-81 OCT 2002
Graham SW, Reeves PA, Burns ACE, Olmstead RG
Microstructural changes in noncoding chloroplast DNA: Interpretation, evolution, and utility of indels and inversions in basal angiosperm phylogenetic inference
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PLANT SCIENCES
161:S83-S96 2000
