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Kenneth Karol
Assistant Curator, The Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Program for Molecular Systematics Studies, The New York Botanical Garden
Ph.D., University of Maryland
College Park, MD (2004)
Plant Biology
Expertise: Molecular Systematics Studies
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Profile |
The evolutionary origin of the embryophytes (or land plants) from their green algal ancestor was unquestionably a pivotal event in the history of life. This transition, and subsequent diversification, has radically transformed the biosphere with land plants now dominating the terrestrial environment. My primary research interest focuses on utilizing several independent and interrelated approaches toward understanding the evolution of green plants in a broad sense, and, more restrictively, the biology, evolution, systematics, and classification of the Charales.
The Charales, more commonly know as charophytes, stoneworts or muskgrasses, are a lineage of fresh-water green algal macrophytes that have a rich fossil record dating to the Late Silurian (~430 million years old) and may hold a key phylogenetic position as the closest living relatives of all land plants. Collaborating with an international group of scientists, we use DNA sequence data to reconstruct the phylogenetic history of the Charales with the ultimate goal of better understanding the morphological evolution of the Charales and producing a robust and stable classification system for this ancient and diverse lineage.
I am also part of a collaborative Tree of Life project to address fundamental questions in green plant phylogeny. For this project we are using two approaches: 1) Sequencing and comparative analyses of entire plastid and mitochondria genomes of green plants, and 2) Study of single-copy nuclear genes and gene-families focusing on charophyte algae and early diverging lineages of land plants. The overall objective is to resolve the primary pattern of evolutionary diversification among green plants and to understand the genomic changes associated with that pattern.
Updated September 5, 2008
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Karol CV