Welcome to the Vallejo-Marin Lab website!

My lab studies plant diversity and evolution, with a particular emphasis on the evolution of reproductive strategies and speciation. Our overarching goal is to understand how ecological, genetic and evolutionary processes interact to generate the amazing diversity seen among the more than 250,000 species of flowering plants. To tackle this main goal, we use a combination of field and glasshouse experiments, genetic and genomic analyses, phylogenetics, and theoretical models. Current projects include:

Buzz-pollination

More than 20,000 species of flowering plants are pollinated by pollen-eating bees that use vibrations to extract pollen from flowers in a phenomenon called buzz-pollination. We are currently investigating how plant and insect characteristics affect pollen removal in species of Solanum (Solanaceae) visited by bumble bees.

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    • Division of labour within flowers

    The enigma of why some plants species produce flowers with two morphologically distinct types of anthers troubled Charles Darwin for twenty years. Using experimental manipulations and pollinator observations we showed that anther dimorphism results in division of labour into feeding and fertilising functions in nectarless flowers that use pollen as both the food to attract pollinators and as the carriers of male gametes.

     

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    Hybridisation and genome duplication

    Monkey flower hybrids reveal rapid speciation in introduced species. Human transport of plants and animals around the globe, whether accidental or not, is homogeneising the world's biota. Hybridisation among previously isolated species of monkey flowers (Mimulus spp.) from opposite sides of the American continent, has produced an array of sterile plants that are naturalised and widespread in the United Kingdom. Some of these hybrids have gone on to produce the most recent example of a new species evolving in the last 150 years: Mimulus peregrinus.

     

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    Mimulus peregrinus

    Flower Shots

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    Scottish Mimulus

    Hybrid Mimulus in Scotland.

    Mexican Solanum

    Solanum grayi var. grandiflorum in Mexico.