Phylogenomics and Heuchera

Phylogenomics (phylogeny + genomics) is a rapidly developing field that uses broad sampling of genetic regions across the genome in order to infer an estimate of the "tree of life" for a set of species. Newly developed sequencing technologies, beginning with pyrosequencing in the middle of previous decade, make it feasible (not even unusual) to obtain hundreds of loci and hundreds of thousands of basepairs from each species of interest.

I have recently completed phylogenomic data collection across the genus Heuchera (hosted by the Mandel lab, University of Memphis). We have finished analyzing the DNA data and our work on species tree estimation and hybridization inference is due to appear presently. Work on ecological perspectives on hybridization and montane distributions will be submitted quite soon also.

An initial paper is available covering the success of a particular type of DNA sequence marker for inferring evolutionary trees in Heuchera:

Below: A draft of the mitochondrial genome of H. parviflora var. saurensis (~ 150X sequencing coverage). Plant organelles have their own small genomes; the mitochondrial genome is typically larger and present in fewer copies than the chloroplast genome. It is also more difficult to assemble because its structure has changed more frequently over evolutionary history. Currently (2015), the closest published mitochondrial genome to Heuchera is the wine grape "Pinot Noir", a distant reference that bears little structural resemblance to Heuchera parviflora. This genome was primarily assembled as a phylogenetic reference for my own work, although a recent paper by Renner et al. in GBE found it useful for placing the highly reduced parasite Cynomorium in the Saxifragales once and for all.