University of Michigan
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Regina Baucom, Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences Department, University of Cincinnati

Abstract
Anthropogenic environmental changes directly affect animal and plant species worldwide and such changes will have a dramatic impact on human health. A remarkable example of this problem lies in the cost of mitigating weedy plant infestations in agricultural crops – an estimated $37 billion of the US economy is lost yearly due to crop damage and the cost of herbicide application (Pimental 2005). Despite the impact of weedy plants on the world’s food supply, little is known about the evolutionary potential of traits that make a plant a weed, and less is understood about the genetics of plant ‘weediness.’

My research makes use of manipulative field experiments and publicly available data sets, as well as the tools of quantitative genetics, bioinformatics and molecular biology to assess how plants adapt to human-mediated selection and which plant species are likely to adapt. I focus on weeds and domesticated species of the model genus Ipomoea (morning glories) to address a range of key evolutionary and ecological questions that will ultimately inform components of agricultural food production.

Host: Professor Timothy James

Coffee and cookies will be served at 4 p.m.