OSCAR ALEJANDRO PÉREZ-ESCOBAR
RESEARCH
From classical taxonomy to comparative genomics and population genetics, I am privileged to have the opportunity of working across multiple plant lineages. My research is financially supported by the Swiss Orchid Foundation and the Sainsbury Orchid Fellowship at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Have a look below and learn more about my ongoing research projects (a detailed list of all my publications is available here)!
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Keywords: phylogenomics, gene tree incongruence, morphometrics, phylogenetic comparative methods, plant domestication, Illumina sequencing, Oxford Nanopore sequencing, whole genome assembly, bioinformatics, data analysis
ORCHID RESEARCH
Learn more about main ongoing projects!
Assembling the orchid tree of life
Orchids have attained a nearly cosmopolitan distribution and often are an important component of many floras. As one of the largest families of flowering plants, they provide a great opportunity to understand how hyperdiverse and depauperate biomes have formed in time and space globally. To enable this research, we are building the most densely sampled phylogeny of the orchid family, by sequencing one or two representatives of every currently accepted genus, using the Angiosperm353 bait kit set. Building from previous phylogenies assembled from very limited samplings, we ought to reassess the origin and macroevolutionary dynamics of the orchid family.
Using subsets of such phylogenies, we have studied the origin, range evolution, and diversification of orchids in the American tropics.
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Selected publications:
1. Pérez-Escobar et al. 2017. Origin and diversification of Neotropical orchids
2. Pérez-Escobar et al. 2017. Andean mountain building did not preclude the dispersal of lowland epiphytic orchids
3. Pérez-Escobar et al. 2021. Hundreds of nuclear and plastid loci yield novel insights into orchid relationships
CROP RESEARCH
All conducted after 17:00 and before 9:00 (ie., side projects all done on my free time)!
Evolution of the date palm and watermelon through archaeogenomics
The existence of human civilisation is inextricably linked to that of plants. As such, understanding the origin and evolution of cultivated plants is critical to ensure their survival. Through the use of plant remains that are hundreds to thousands of years old, my colleagues and I are keen on tracing how artificial selection, gene flow, and abiotic variables have shaped the formation of crops that represent millions of dollars in many economies. Such research focuses at the moment on the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) and the watermelon (Citrullus lanatus, project led by Susanne Renner and Guillaume Chomicki)
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Selected publications:
2. Pérez-Escobar et al. 2021. Molecular clocks and archaeogenomics of a Late Period Egyptian date palm leaf reveals introgression from wild relatives
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