UH professor awarded $1.3M research grant to study native flowering plants in Hawaiʻi

Date: Tuesday, August 13, 2024
Contact: Alyson Kakugawa-Leong, (808) 932-7669

For Immediate Release

A team of researchers led by a Biology professor at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo was recently awarded $1.3 million by the National Science Foundation Division of Environmental Biology Core Program on Systematics & Biodiversity Science for its study on genetic changes underlying adaptive evolution in flowering plants in Hawaiʻi.

Dr. Matthew Knope, associate professor of biology at UH Hilo, is the lead Principal Investigator of “Evolutionary and functional genomics of Hawaiian Bidens: determining the genetic basis of phenotypic trait diversification in a rapid adaptive radiation.” The other Principal Investigators are Dr. Daniel Jones of Auburn University and Dr. Christopher Muir of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“Our research combines the fields of genomics, developmental biology, ecology, and physiology to test hypotheses related to the genetic mechanisms underlying the evolution of new traits in a rapidly diversifying endemic lineage of flowering plants in Hawaiʻi (ko`oko`olau; genus Bidens),” Knope noted. “The project will generate new genome assemblies and experimentally identify the genetic and developmental changes responsible for leaf, fruit/seed, and flower trait evolution providing key insights into the mechanisms responsible for explosive evolutionary diversification in Hawaiʻi and elsewhere. This collaborative research is only made possible by combining the complementary expertise of the three labs involved and the generous support of the National Science Foundation.

“A high priority of this project is also to provide training in inter-disciplinary evolutionary approaches for undergraduates, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers, including those from underrepresented groups, thereby improving the scientific workforce by preparing them to strongly contribute to scientific research, education, and/or technological advancements.”

The project received a total award of $1,334,718 and begins January 1, 2025.

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