Laboratory Research
Laboratory Research encompasses the Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Program for Molecular Systematics, the Genomics Program, and Structural Botany. Highly advanced facilities support research by Garden scientists, postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, visiting scientists, technical staff, and interns. Laboratory research complements traditional field, herbarium, and literature research about plants and allows for critical and exhaustive investigation, experimentation, and discovery.
Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Program for Molecular Systematics
The Cullman Program focuses plant molecular research on the global scientific effort to assemble the evolutionary tree of life (family tree) for all plants on Earth, past and present. Assembling the tree of life requires a very close understanding of the relationships of specific plants to each other. The expertise of the Cullman Curators is spread across the plant kingdom, from the earliest branches of the green algae and land plants, through the gymnosperms, to the major branches of the flowering plants. To elucidate the evolutionary placement of fossil species on the tree of life, the work of the Cullman Program intersects with that of the Structural Botany laboratory. In partnership with the American Museum of Natural History, the Cullman Program looks at plant-animal interactions at the level of the molecule. On the applied side, the Program focuses effort on using DNA barcodes as a species identity-tag.
Genomics Program
The Genomics Program focuses on exploring and understanding the genes responsible for evolutionary innovations—such as origin of the leaf or fleshiness in fruits—seen on the plant portion of the tree of life (family tree). It also looks at how genetic diversity within plant populations is being affected by human interventions such as climate change and forest fragmentation. In combination with the Structural Botany laboratory, the Genomics Program is leading development of the Plant Ontology, a common-language database for facilitating communication about plant traits across all subdisciplines of plant science. As part of the New York Plant Genomics Consortium, the Program is exploiting genome diversity to discover new genes involved in the development of seeds.
Structural Botany
Structural botany investigates the form and function of plants. It complements and aids other plant research by shedding light on the very specific characteristics used to identify and classify plants, determine how they grow, and determine their evolutionary pathways. It plays a pivotal role in placing fossil plant species on the evolutionary tree of life when DNA is no longer available. Structural botany also aids conservation by looking at how plant forms and functions may be changing in response to environmental pressures. With the Genomics Program, the Structural Botany laboratory is leading development of the Plant Ontology, a common-language database for facilitating communication about plant traits across all subdisciplines of plant science.
NYBG’s Laboratory Research Projects:
A phylogenomics approach to resolving one of the world’s most diverse, tropical angiosperm radiations: Melastomataceae
Assessing Phylogeny and Biogeography in a Megadiverse Tropical Plant Family (Melastomataceae)
Biodiversity Gradients in Obligate Symbiotic Organisms: A Case Study in Lichens in a Global Diversity Hotspot (NSF Dimensions)
DNA Barcoding of Dietary Supplements
Evolution and Systematics of the Neotropical Clade of Schefflera (Araliaceae)
Evolution and Development in Lycophytes and Ferns
EvoNet: A Phylogenomic and Systems Biology Approach to Identify Genes Underlying Plant Survival in Marginal, Low-Nitrogen Soils
Fruit Evolution and Development
Genomics of Comparative Seed Evolution
The Green Algae Tree of Life
Living Fossils: Applying Advances in Single Molecule Sequencing to Decode Large and Complex Genomes of Ancient Plant Lineages
Molecular-based Plant Inventory of a Megadiverse Bahian Forest
Phylogeny and Systematics of the Characeae
Phylogeography and Conservation Genetics of the Caribbean Zamia clade
Strategy for Conserving Ash Trees in the Northeast: Collection, Analysis, and Outreach
Starry Stonewort: Assessing the Threat of an Invasive Freshwater Macroalga in the Northeast
Transforming Selaginella apoda into a Major Model Species
1000 Plants Initiative