#  Grace Burgin Thesis Defense (Robin Hopkins, Advisor) 

 



####  calendar\_today Date and Time 

 **March 28, 2025** 

 01:00PM - 02:00PM EDT 

####  pin\_drop Location 

 **Weld Hill Lecture Hall, 1300 Centre St., Boston MA**  



 

 



 

**Title:** Mate choice in *Phlox* wildflowers

**Abstract:** Mate choice determines when, where, and how reproduction occurs. The summed effect of these decisions across generations drives evolutionary trajectories and patterns diversity across biological scales. Inspired by these far-reaching impacts, I focus on two primary arenas where plant mate choice decisions occur: 1) organismal interactions between plants and their pollinators and 2) cellular interactions between reproductive structures within the flower (pollen and pistil).

In **Chapter 1**, I quantify the pollination environment in the Texas wildflower, *Phlox drummondii,* and identify high pollinator specialization towards a single butterfly species. Building on this empirical work in **Chapter 2**, I generate a novel theoretical framework for the role of pollinators as agents of dispersal. In **Chapter 3**, I test the hypothesis of increased self-fertilization in *P. cuspidata* as an adaptation to avoid costly hybridization with its related congener, *P. drummondii*. In **Chapters 4 and 5**, I use quantitative and functional genetics to investigate the genetic basis of the self-incompatibility mechanism active in *P. drummondii*. I map the genetic basis of intraspecific variation in the self-pollen rejection response and identify a novel gene causing self-pollen recognition in *Phlox* wildflowers. Taken together, my work integrates broad experimental approaches to explore how mate choice mechanisms function across biological scales.

**Committee:** Robin Hopkins (Advisor), Elena Kramer (Chair), Dan Hartl, Boris Igić



 

 



 

 See also:- [ OEB Thesis Seminar ](/event-type/oeb-thesis-seminar)
 
 

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