This paper serves as the initial phase of a planned long-term field study tracking how hybrid swarms respond to environmental change. I’m excited to see where it goes from here!

At one site, spatial segregation at really fine scales (20-50m!) allows the persistence of multiple ancestry cohorts, with partial but incomplete reproductive isolation between them that varies across years. We suspect this fluctuation is driven by year-to-year variation in water availability.

We find similar patterns of asymmetric hybridization at multiple sites, including complete capture of the M. nasutus organellar genome into sympatric M. guttatus, but differences among sites in the distribution of hybrid ancestry.

Okay this is wild 😮

7/ The species we worked with in this study are very particular about growing conditions, and had a tendency to abort fruits or just straight up die on us— it quickly became clear why they aren’t a model system! 😂 Despite (or because of?) this, I got very attached…

6/ Interestingly, one population turned out to not fit well (genetically and phenotypically) into any nearby species. We don’t know if it fits into its own undescribed species, or just one that hasn’t been sequenced yet. More sampling of the group in the future would help resolve this.

5/ We also grew collections in the greenhouse and attempted to cross them. Only one pair produced viable hybrids (and even these had high levels of sterility), demonstrating that intrinsic barriers to reproduction are strong in this group.

4/ In order to add one piece to this puzzle, we produced the first whole-genome sequence data for a few members of the Eunanus section, a group of typically small, ephemeral annual wildflowers. We used these sequences to examine evolutionary relationships, divergence, and potential hybridization.

3/ By expanding our research efforts to more monkeyflower groups, we can make comparisons across species to learn more about patterns of evolution. What processes happen over and over again? What makes species unique? How dependent is evolution on initial conditions, or on chance?

2/ Monkeyflowers (Mimulus) have long been a model for studying evolution, ecological genetics, and speciation. Most of this work has focused on a few key species complexes, but the genus is incredibly diverse with ~150 species, most of which are found in western North America.

Is it weird that I don’t have a strong preference? Anything that cuts the acidity a bit is great.

Haircap moss (Polytrichum commune), low pricky-pear cactus (Opuntia humifusa), slender lady’s tresses orchid (Spiranthes lacera), and Curtiss’ milkwort (Polygala curtissii)