Matt Keirle
Ph.D. student
University of Chicago
Rhodocollybia laulaha |
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Project:
- Microevolutionary processes in mushrooms of the Hawaiian
Archipelago
- Hawaii offers a unique living laboratory that can be used to ask important questions about adaptation and ecology for a variety of organisms including fungi. My dissertation research investigates the microevolutionary processes that lead to species formation in macrofungi through the examination of a narrowly endemic, saprotrophic fungal species (Rhodocollybia laulaha) which is distributed across a geographically subdivided set of nested island populations in the Hawaiian Archipelago. Patterns of genetic population structure will be analyzed in a spatial context for evidence of correlation to the ecology, morphology, and reproductive behavior of R. laulaha subpopulations. This phylogeographic approach will improve understanding of early events important in population level divergence that might lead to the development of isolating barriers and ultimate speciation.
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