What we study

Reproductive barriers are traits that keep species separate, so the evolution of reproductive barriers is what causes new species to arise (i.e., speciation). In the Ostevik lab, we study the evolution of these barriers. In particular, we are interested in which barriers cause speciation, which evolutionary processes (e.g., selection or drift) explain barrier evolution, and what happens to barriers when species hybridize. Read more about previous projects here and here.

Mate choice and sexual selection are well-established diversifying forces in animals, but the extent to which they drive speciation in plants has been largely unexplored. This type of selection may be common in plants where the pollen grains that arrive on stigmas often greatly outnumber the available ovules, which generates competition among those pollen grains. We look for molecular signatures of sexual selection in plants, e.g., in genes expressed in pollen and pistils.