Ecology &
Evolutionary Biology

In the Stinchcombe Lab, we study ecological and evolutionary genetics. We are interested in the interaction between natural selection and genetics. For studies of natural selection, we are interested in measuring natural selection, predicting evolutionary change, understanding the ecological agents of selection, and evaluating how selection occurs and changes in natural or field settings. Our genetic work includes studies of classical Mendelian polymorphisms, quantitative genetics, and genomics and transcriptomics. Our goals are to determine when genetic forces will constrain or accelerate evolutionary change, whether we can detect past evidence of selection in patterns of diversity and polymorphism, and attempting to integrate population genetic and quantitative genetic approaches to evolution. We combine field work, lab work, next-generation sequencing, and manipulative experiments, usually working with plants as experimental systems. Most of our work addressing these questions focuses on life history evolution and plant-microbe mutualisms, although we also study other topics such as gene expression, herbicide resistance, invasive species, the evolution of clines, and species range limits. 

Click here for a wordle that visually depicts my research topics.