Ana L. Caicedo
Assistant Professor
caicedo@bio.umass.edu
Laboratory Web Site
Education
B.Sc., Universidad de los Andes, Bogota, Colombia, 1996
Ph.D., Washington University, St. Louis, 2003
Postdoctoral
North Carolina State University, 2003-2006
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Research Interests
Plant Molecular Evolution and Evolutionary Genomics
Adaptive evolution, the product of natural selection, underlies much of all biological diversity.
My research seeks to understand the genetic basis of adaptation, as well as the population and genomic
context in which adaptive evolution occurs. To this effect, research interests in the lab span a range
of disciplines, including population genetics, molecular evolution, evolutionary ecology, phylogeography,
and evolutionary genomics. We focus on the study of loci contributing to traits of evolutionary or
ecological importance and the processes governing diversification within and between closely related plant
species. Among the questions we address are: Which are the genes underlying adaptive traits? How is
variation at these genes distributed at the population level? What evolutionary forces act on these genes
and what are their molecular signatures? What role does the genomic context play in the evolution of
ecologically important genes?
Our research makes use of model organisms (e.g. Arabidopsis thaliana), wild relatives of crop
species (e.g. Solanum spp., Oryza spp.), and domesticated plant species
(e.g. cultivated rice, O. sativa). The process of domestication, in particular, can provide insight
into rapid evolution and adaptive responses under strong selection. By comparing domesticated species
with their wild and weedy relatives we can learn about the genetic/genomic changes that accompany
domestication, and those leading to adaptation in agricultural environments. Understanding of selective
processes in the wild can also be gained by studying the wild relatives of domesticated plants; the
genetic and genomic resources available for many crop species can inform the search for ecologically
relevant genes and the characterization of genomic variation. Current projects in the lab include the
molecular evolution of genes associated with weedy phenotypes in red rice
(a weedy form of O. sativa) and the identification of genes contributing to diversification
and stress tolerance in the wild tomato relative, S. cheesmaniae.
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Representative Publications
Caicedo, A.L.*, S.H. Williamson*, R.D. Hernandez, A. Boyko, A. Fledel-Alon, T.L. York, N. Polato,
Bustamante, and M.D. Purugganan. 2007. Genome-wide patterns of nucleotide polymorphism in domesticated
rice. PLoS Genetics, 3: 1745-1756. *shared authorship
Olsen, K.M., A.L. Caicedo, N. Polato, A. McClung, S. McCouch, M.D. Purugganan. 2006. Selection
under domestication: Evidence for a sweep in the rice Waxy genomic region. Genetics, 173: 975-983.
Caicedo, A.L. and M.D. Purugganan. 2005. Comparative plant genomics: frontiers and prospects.
Plant Physiology, 138: 545-547.
Caicedo, A.L. and B.A. Schaal, 2004. Heterogeneous evolutionary processes affect R gene
diversity in natural populations of Solanum pimpinellifolium. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 101: 17444-17449.
Caicedo, A.L., J.R. Stinchcombe, K.M. Olsen, J. Schmitt and M.D. Purugganan, 2004. Epistatic
interaction between the Arabidopsis FRI and FLC flowering time genes generates a latitudinal
cline in a life history trait. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 101: 15670-15675.
Caicedo, A.L., B.A. Schaal, and B.N. Kunkel, 1999. Diversity and molecular evolution of the
RPS2 resistance gene in Arabidopsis thaliana. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 96: 302-306.
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