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 Dr. Mitch Cruzan is an associate professor of biology with a research focus in plant ecological genetics. He is utilizing ecological and molecular genetic approaches to address issues associated with plant adaptation to novel and extreme environments. Because of their sedentary nature, plants often must withstand some of the most severe conditions present in terrestrial environments.
Dr. Cruzan's lab group focuses on a range of general topics in ecology and evolutionary biology including natural hybridization, floral biology, phylogeography, and the population genetics of rare and invasive species.
His primary study system is plants in the Piriqueta caroliniana complex, a novel model plant system. The Piriqueta system has several advantages that render it particularly suitable for the study of adaptation. While it possess a relatively short generation time and small genome similar to traditional model organisms, closely related populations of this taxon occur in a much broader range of habitats than other model systems, which spans the moisture extremes experienced by terrestrial organisms- from severe drought to saturated soils that occur during sustained floods. Moreover, since these plants are perennial, they have adaptive characteristics that allow them to persist and remain metabolically active during periods of severe conditions. Experimental and genetic analyses on this species have demonstrated that genotypes from different habitats posses suites of morphological and physiological traits that facilitate their growth and survival under the severe conditions that they experience.
The primary goal of our work is to identify and analyze the genetic factors that contribute to adaptation to these contrasting environmental conditions. Current research focuses on the use of microarray technology for the identification of RNA expression profiles that are associated with adaptation to extreme environments.
| Website: | http://web.pdx.edu/~cruzan/ |
| Address: |
Mitchell B. Cruzan, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Biology
P.O. Box 751
Portland State University
Portland, OR 97207
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| Phone: | 503.725.8391 |
| Email: | cruzan@pdx.edu |
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