My research centers around the causes and consequences of heterotrophy in plants. Specifically, the goal of my work is to understand the eco-evolutionary and functional-genomic bases of organismal interaction between parasitic plants and their environment. My group prioritizes research on ecological and molecular adaptations associated with parasitism to obtain fundamental insights into the course of trophic specialization and the emergence of parasitic weeds. Other active research interests focusing on parasitic plants include the molecular-coevolutionary processes of genomic reconfigurations along lifestyle changes as well as the development of DNA metabarcodes for the identification of weed germplasm in environmental samples. As Editor of IPPS, I would like to help consolidate the society’s cohesion by improving communication and exchange among its members, and I hope that my work will contribute to increasing the reach of IPPS’ outreach activities to promote parasitic plant research in the public domain.
