| Susan
E. Masta
Associate Professor smasta@pdx.edu |
 |
My lab focuses on the process of biological diversification, and we use varied
approaches to understand how genes, organisms, and populations evolve.
Understanding the evolution of mitochondrial genes, especially those
coding for RNA, has been the emphasis of much of our work. Data
from mitochondrial genomes has also allowed my lab group to help infer
the systematic relationships among the chelicerates, one of the most
species-rich groups of animals. At the population level, we examine factors that promote and inhibit speciation. including understanding the potentially adaptive role
of visual signaling in different ecological settings.