The Onyenedum Lab (EST. 2020) seeks to investigate the evolutionary developmental biology underpinning plant diversity. We investigate how fine-scale developmental processes drive large-scale macroevolutionary patterns, with a particular interest in addressing the repeated and independent evolution of climbing plants. To achieve this, we use integrative approaches, leveraging tools and techniques from classical anatomy and morphology, molecular systematics, statistical phylogenetic comparative methods, developmental biology, and cell wall biology.

Developmental underpinning of climbing vines

Vines employ a variety of motions to secure themselves onto external structures in order to climb, such as circumnutation, spiral and/or helical growth. These dynamic movements of vines requires a complex suite of interacting developmental processes at different organismal scales.

The Onyenedum lab is investigating how cell wall construction, stem anatomy, and elongation growth are modulated by hormones to shape growth habit diversity in plants. For this work, we study the common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L). This work is supported by an NSF CAREER Award 2401675

SYSTEMATICS & EVOLUTION

In temperate North America, the number of vine species is relatively low, however this does not represent the breadth of diversity of these plants across the world. In tropical forests, vines are more prolific. One of the most diverse lineages of vines is Paullinieae (Sapindaceae), a tropical group of ~ 495 species.

The Onyenedum Lab is disentangling the evolutionary history of this massive group of plants with the aid of herbarium collections, field work collections, and a large genomic datasets in collaboration with Dr. Pedro Acevedo-Rodríguez.

EVOLUTION OF DEVELOPMENT OF ODD VASCULATURE

“Lianas” are woody vines that rely on other plants to climb through the forest canopy. This unique growth form has evolved multiple times throughout the evolution of vascular plants. Because lianas must twist and turn without breaking, their wood anatomy and stem development is specifically equipped for this unique demand– this often results in unusual stem conformations that are distinct from trees and shrubs.

The Onyenedum Lab works to understand how novel woody forms independently evolved in disparate liana lineages, both anatomically and genetically. Towards this aim, we develop developmental anatomy & transcriptomic datasets to explore how novel woody forms evolved in a phylogenetic context.