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John Hall
Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Program for Molecular Systematics, The New York Botanical Garden
Ph.D., University of Maryland
College Park, MD (2008)
"Understanding diversity in a species-rich eukaryotic lineage; phylogenetic studies of the conjugating green algae"
Expertise: Systematics of the conjugating green algae (Zygnematophyceae)
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Profile |
Land plants and green algae evolved from a common green-algal ancestor. It is unknown what this common ancestor looked like because there are very few unequivocal land plant fossils more than 500 million years old. While we may never know what that ancestor looked like from direct fossil evidence, by studying the extant relatives of land plants, the charophycean green algae, it may be possible to determine what genetic and genomic changes occurred in the transition to life on dry land. I use genomic techniques to investigate the genetic basis for some of these transitions. My current work focuses on the transition to land and molecular systematics of charophycean green algae.
I am broadly interested in taxonomy and systematics of green algae and have worked mostly on freshwater algae, particularly the conjugating green algae (Zygnematophyceae). Zygnematophyceae are one of the lineages most closely allied to plants. Many classroom organisms, including Spirogyra and the desmids, are conjugating green algae. I continue to study their diversity, distribution, and phylogenetic relationships as well as their developmental processes such as cell division.
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Selected Publications |
Hall, John D. and Charles F. Delwiche (2007) In the shadow of giants – systematics of the charophyte green algae. In Unravelling the Algae - a special volume published by the Systematics Association.
Hall, John D., Kenneth G. Karol, Richard M. McCourt and Charles F. Delwiche (2008) Molecular phylogenetic analysis of the conjugating green algae based on chloroplast and mitochondrial nucleotide sequence data. Journal of Phycology 44: 467-477
Hall, John D., Richard M. McCourt and Charles F. Delwiche (2008) Patterns of cell division in the filamentous Desmidaceae, close green algal relatives of land plants. American Journal of Botany 95 (6): 643-654
Fucikova, Karolina, John D. Hall, Jeffery Johansen and Rex Lowe (2008) Desmids of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, USA. Bibliotheca Phycologia, Band 113
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