ORIGIN AND DIVERSIFICATION OF ORCHIDS+

I am an evolutionary biologist/taxonomist with a strong interest in disentangling the different variables driving the evolution of plants across micro and macro-evolutionary scales. My work focuses on orchids: one of the most diverse and fascinating plant groups amongst the angiosperms! In particular, I am bound to understand how many orchid species are there, why are there so many, and how they achieved to conquer nearly all terrestrial ecosystems on Earth.

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My areas of expertise range from classical taxonomy to comparative genomics. I make use of geographical distribution records, spatial data analyses,  Sanger + high-throughput sequencing datasets technologies, and trait data in combination with comparative phylogenetic methods to answer important and timely questions.

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One particular side interest I have at the moment is the origin and evolution of cultivated plants, which I pursue as a proxy to understand how plant genomes change in short time scales in response to abiotic and biotic variables. To achieve this, I compile/produce partial/entire representations of plant crop genomes from archaeological plant remains (some of which are thousands of years old!) and historical collections. A specific question I aim to address is how artificial selection, past interaction with crop wild and close relatives and climate change have affected genome architecture and genetic diversity.

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Learn more about my research here!