Joy Bergelson, Ph.D.

Coevolutionary and Ecological Dynamics Between Arabidopsis thaliana and its Bacterial Pathogens

Research Summary

The research in my laboratory focuses primarily on the ecology and evolution of plant resistance traits. Our approach is to combine ecological field experiments with transgenic manipulations in order to explore the fitness effects and selective histories of particular resistance genes. Recent work attempts to determine the evolutionary dynamics of resistance genes involved in gene-for-gene interactions with plant pathogens, and to determine the pleiotropic fitness effects of resistance (to plant pathogens, herbivores and herbicides), at both physiological and population levels. A variety of experimental systems are currently being used in the laboratory, including rabidopsis thaliana, Brassica napus. Atropa belladonna and Ipomopsis aggregata.

In addition, I maintain a broad interest in plant population biology and am involved in projects on weed invasiveness, plant population dynamics, plant quantitative genetics and global environment change in both natural and experimental systems.

Selected Papers

Juenger T and Bergelson J. (1998). Pairwise and diffuse selection and the multiple herbivores of scarlet gilia, Ipomopsis aggregata (Polemoniaceae). Evolution52: 1583-1592.

Stahl E, Dwyer G, Mauricio R, Kreitman M and Bergelson J. (1999). Dynamics of disease resistance polymorphism at the Rpm1 locus of Arabidopsis. Nature 400: 667-671.

Purrington CB and Bergelson J. (1999). Exploring the physiological basis of costs of herbicide resistance in Arabidopsis thaliana. The American Naturalist 154, S82-S91.

Shonle I and Bergelson J. (2000). Evolutionary ecology of the tropane alkaloids of Datura Stramonium L. (Solanaceae). Evolution 54(3):778-788.

Cipollini D and Bergelson J. Environmental and developmental regulation of trypsin inhibitior activity in Brassica napus. Journal of Chemical Ecology, in press.