Genetics of Adaptation in Monkeyflowers
Benjamin Blackman, Professor
Plant and Microbial Biology
Applications for Fall 2026 are closed for this project.
A major focus of our lab is identifying how genetic and phenotypic variation that has evolved among plant populations adapts plants to their local climates. Understanding how these adaptations to climate variation across space have evolved will help us understand mechanisms by which plants can evolve to cope with a changing climate over time and thus know what subsets of natural variation are most important to conservation efforts. We are studying the genetics of local adaptation in the common monkeyflower, Mimulus guttatus. In our work, we investigate not only how populations have evolved in response to long term climate trends but also how recent extreme drought events have caused evolutionary change, and one large set of experiments conducted in summer 2025 was particularly aimed at answering this latter question. In this coming term, we will be working to process all of the samples we collected during these experiments in various ways.
In addition to studies of climate adaptation, we are also pursuing projects to examine how Mimulus guttatus populations have adapted to unique soil conditions. One of these projects focuses on how some populations of monkeyflowers have adapted to thrive on copper mine tailings containing typically very toxic levels of this element in just the last 150 years or so. This summer we made new seed collections from several copper mine populations that we have not worked with before as well as from close by populations on uncontaminated soils. This fall, our aim will be to grow up many individuals from this seed and collect tissue for DNA extractions. That DNA will eventually allow the genomes of these plants be sequenced to look for genes that are particularly diverged between mine and off-mine populations, suggesting variation at those genes has been particularly important for adaptation to copper-contaminated soils.
Role: The undergraduate researchers may be involved in processing or scoring phenotypes samples or images from collected during past experiments, or testing machine learning algorithms to do so. They may also be involved in growing plants and collecting tissue for future DNA isolation from samples. The student is encouraged to join weekly Blackman lab group meetings as well.
Qualifications: Students with strong interests in plant-environment interaction, genetics, evolution, and ecology will find the experience most rewarding. Attention to detail and good record keeping skills are essential. The student should be comfortable and enthusiastic about working in greenhouse and growth chamber conditions for extended periods, and they will be expected to follow guidelines for safely doing so.
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: Keric Lamb, Post-Doc
Hours: 3-5 hrs
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Biological & Health Sciences