Dissertation title:

Ovule Reduction in the Santales

Ph.D. expected: 2005

Major advisor: Charles S. Gasser

Research interests:

To better understand the diversification of ovule morphology among angiosperms, I have initiated studies on the ovules of members of the order Santalales, an order of mainly parasitic plants that includes mistletoe and sandalwood. The Santalales includes species with ovules similar to those found in most other angiosperms (bitegmic), but also has members with very reduced ovules compared with the rest of the angiosperms. For some species one or both integuments are absent (unitegmic or ategmic respectively) and in others, ovules are not seen to emerge from the underlying placental tissues (characterized as not being true ovules). I plan to use ovule development genes (characterized in Arabidopsis thaliana) to more clearly define the nature of the reductions in the ovules of Santalales and possibly elucidate which genes are involved in ovule reduction by examining the nature and expression of orthologs of three ovule genes: AINTEGUMENTA (ANT), BELL1 (BEL1) and INNER NO OUTER (INO).