Item Details

title

The Evolutionary Genomics of African Acacias

author

Weinheimer, Ellen Iris

abstract

Dynamic ecological processes and relationships are reflected in the molecular evolution of species. Particularly in ecosystems sustained by a complex network of ecological processes and relationships, variable selective pressures across both deep and shallow time scales leave impressions and signatures within genomes that can be detected to infer the importance of various environmental variables on species evolution. In this dissertation, I present three studies that utilize genomic data to investigate the evolutionary history of African acacias, a group of key species in African savanna ecosystems. This work broadens our understanding of the role of acacias in shaping the evolution of African savannas and adaptations that have allowed them to persist under the intense biotic and abiotic stress therein. In the first chapter, I develop and implement a novel framework to detect differential gene expression across experimental time courses to investigate African acacia drought response strategies at the level of gene expression in an in vitro common garden experiment. I apply this novel statistical framework in the second chapter to a broader set of ecologically diverse species to specifically investigate the evolution of gene expression reactions to drought from a phylogenetic perspective. I present a genome assembly of the umbrella thorn, the emblematic African acacia, in the third chapter and describe the genomic features relevant to their adaptation to African savannas.

subject

Evolution

Genomics

contributor

Pease, James (advisor)

Sweigart, Andrea (committee member)

Cordy, Regina (committee member)

Zeyl, Clifford (committee member)

date

2025-06-24T08:36:30Z (accessioned)

2025 (issued)

degree

Biology (discipline)

embargo

2026-06-23 (terms)

2026-06-23 (liftdate)

identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/111013 (uri)

language

en (iso)

publisher

Wake Forest University

type

Dissertation