Ethan Baldwin

Ethan is a postdoctoral researcher in John Burke's lab at the University of Georgia. He is broadly interested in studying plant evolutionary biology through a genomics lens. In particular, he is interested in how hybridization has impacted the evolutionary trajectory of plant lineages. Much of his work on hybridization has focused on the carnivorous pitcher plant genus Sarracenia.

Research

Sarracenia plastid phylogenomics

Plastome phylogenies that disagree with species phylogenies are often used as evidence for chloroplast capture, but rarely is this hypothesis formally tested against the null hypothesis of incomplete lineage sorting, which can also result in plastid tree discordance. Using coalescent simulations to test this hypothesis, Ethan revealed widespread chloroplast capture throughout the genus Sarracenia.

Genome assembly

Ethan has assembled and annotated chromosomal level reference genomes for Sarracenia purpurea and Sarracenia psittacina. He sequenced an F1 hybrid between the two species and phased the haplotypes using a technique called trio-binning to produce a genome assembly for both species.

QTL mapping of pitcher traits

Ethan is using QTL mapping to study the genetic architecture of traits that differentiate the pitchers of S. purpurea and S. psittacina .