I am super excited to be part of the NATURE (Nurturing American Tribal Undergraduate Research and Education) Sunday Academy! As part of this program, I am teaching a class on adaptation and climate change on plants at different tribal colleges in North Dakota from September 2018 to March 2019. Yesterday, I was at the Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College in New Town. The class included activities such as calculating allelle frequencies and DNA extraction from different varieties of onions!

Today I gave a seminar at the Dept. of Biological Sciences on my past and current research:

Today I presented some preliminary results from my post-doc at NDSU at Botany2018 in Rochester, MN! 

I have just joined the Hamilton Lab at NDSU as a postdoctoral fellow! I will be working on the role that whole genome duplication plays on diversification using the polyploid Geum triflorum ​(Rosaceae).

Our latest paper in Micromeria (Lamiaceae) diversification was published this month on Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. The paper is freely available for download using this link (until January 15th, 2018).  
In this study, we developed a new RAD sequencing approach to improve the phylogenetic resolution of the species of Micromeria endemic to the Canary Islands. Special attention was given to disentangle the relationships within M. varia species complex. Our results support the latest species reclassification and also explain the role of introgression in this group's diversification.

Our most recent work on the diversification of Micromeria in the Canary Islands was published today in BMC Evolutionary Biology 17. The paper is Open Access and can be downloaded here.
Our study discusses the role that inter-island colonization, hybridization and gene-flow play in Micromeria diversification. Furthermore, our results suggest the existence of a syngameon, following the surfing syngameon hypothesis (Caujapé-Castells 2011. In: Bramwell D, Caujapé-Castells J. The biology of island floras, p. 284–324), which might facilitate speciation and colonization on oceanic archipelagos.  

Our recent paper on Micromeria was published today in Phytotaxa 317: "Nomenclatural Notes on Macaronesian Micromeria (Lamiaceae)". After our proposal for conserving the names M. varia and M. hyssopifolia was turned down by the General Committee (Wilson, KL. 2017. Report of the General Committee: 17. Taxon 66: 478–480), these two taxa needed to be renamed. The new names are: Micromeria ericifolia (Roth) Bornmüller for M. hyssopifolia and M. tragothymus Webb & Berthelot for M. varia.

Calceolaria chibulensis C. Romero, Bussmann & Puppo and C. comulcana C. Romero, Bussmann & Puppo were published today in Novon 25(1). These species were collected in the province of Bolívar, La Libertad Department in Peru.

This month I start a new position at CIBIO-InBIO, one of the research centers of the University of Porto in Portugal. I have been hired as Research Assistant for the Environmental Metagenomics project and I am very excited at going back to the University of Porto where I finished my PhD last year.
To learn more about the Metagenomics project, click here. You can also follow the progress of the project in ResearchGate.
Stay tuned for more news!