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Kathleen Donohue
Assistant Professor
Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology
Harvard University Herbaria 22 Divinity Ave. Cambridge, MA 02138
My interests are in evolutionary ecology and evolutionary genetics, and most of my research is conducted in natural plant populations. I have a strong ecological focus to my research, as I am interested in mechanisms of natural selection and ecotypic differentiation in variable environments. My research addresses the evolution of phenotypic plasticity, dispersal, dormancy, and parental effects. Studying the evolution of these complex characters is intriguing since it requires investigating different levels of selection in variable environments, and it requires consideration of the coevolution of suites of traits, some of which influence fitness in more than one generation. My interest in dispersal and dormancy, moreover, extends to their influence on population demography, population genetic structure, and the manner in which they determine the selective environment experienced by an organism. I have conducted fieldwork in the lakeshore dunes of Michigan and Indiana, forests and sand plains of New England, wadis of Yemen, and old fields of Kentucky.
The Great
Lakes sea rocket (Cakile edentula var. lacustris) growing on
the beach of
Lake Michigan at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.
Research projects:
The evolutionary
ecology of mobility: Ecological genetics in Arabidopsis thaliana
The evolution of seed
dispersal
The evolution of phenotypic plasticity
Courses:
The Evolution and Consequenses of Phenotypic PlasticityNatural selection in Evolutionary Processes
Darwin's Finches (Freshman seminar)
Evolutionary Classics Reading Group
People in the lab:
Jocelyn Hall (postdoctoral associate): Evolutionary systematics; the evolution of fruit morphology in the Brassiceae
Shane Heschel (postdoctoral associate): Ecophysiology in natural plant populations; the physiological basis of natural variation in germination in Arabidopsis thaliana
Lauren Griffen (graduate student): Plant evolutionary ecology; environmental effects on pollen-stigma interactions and hybridization
George Chiang (graduate student): The genetic basis of germination and life history in Arabidopsis thaliana
EunSuk Kim (graduate student): Plant evolutionary ecology; the evolution of life histories
Colleen Butler (technician): Invasive species
Can Cenik (undergraduate): Genetic basis of germination
Jessica Selby (undergraduate): Germination and global climate change
To prospective students:
Periodically, I accept graduate and undergraduate students to conduct research in this lab. Applicants to the lab should have an interest in evolutionary ecology and ecological genetics of plant populations. I am particularly interested in students who wish to conduct ecologically grounded research in Arabidopsis or other mustards. Information regarding applications for graduate work can be found on the OEB website. Please get in touch if you have further questions.
Representative publications:
Donohue, K. 2005. Niche construction through phenological
plasticity: Life history dynamics
and ecological consequences. New Phytologist, Special Issue. In press.
Donohue, K., L. Dorn, C. Griffith, E. S. Kim, A. Aguilera, C. R.
Polisetty, J. Schmitt. 2005. The evolutionary ecology of seed germination of Arabidopsis thaliana: Variable natural selection on
germination timing. Evolution. In press.
Donohue, K., C. R. Polisetty, N. J. Wender. 2005. Genetic
consequences of niche construction:
Plasticity-mediated genetic constraints on the evolution of seed
dispersal in Arabidopsis thaliana. The
American Naturalist. In press.
Griffith, C., E-S Kim, K. Donohue. 2004. Life-history variation and adaptation in the historically mobile plant, Arabidopsis thaliana (Brassicaceae), in North America. American Journal of Botany 91:837-849.
Donohue, K. 2003. The influence of neighbor relatedness on multilevel selection in the Great Lakes sea rocket. The American Naturalist. 162:77-92.
Donohue, K. 2003. Setting the stage: Phenotypic plasticity as habitat selection. International Journal of Plant Sciences, Special Issue. 164:S79-S92.
Donohue, K. 2002. Germination timing influences natural selection on life-history characters in Arabidopsis thaliana. Ecology 83:1006-1016.
Donohue, K., E. Hammond-Pyle, D. Messiqua, S. M. Heschel, and J. Schmitt. 2001. Adaptive divergence in plasticity in natural populations of Impatiens capensis and its consequences for performance in novel habitats. Evolution 55:692-702.
Donohue, K., D. R. Foster, and G. Motzkin. 2000. Effects of the past and the present on species distributions: Land-use history and the demography of wintergreen. Journal of Ecology 88:1-15.
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