Jeffrey D. Palmer

I use approaches of comparative molecular biology, genomics, phylogenetics, and bioinformatics to study various major issues in the evolution of mitrochondrial genes and genomes. At times, these studies also provide valuable phylogenetics insight. Current studies cover the transfer of mitochondrial genes to the nucleus, using flowering plants as a model "system;" the transmission of a promiscuous group I intron that has invaded the mitochondrial cox1 gene thousands of times during angiosperm evolution by lateral transfer; the mutation rate variation discovered in two lineages of plants whose mitochondrial genes are evolving at a rate up to 1,000 times faster than that of other plants; and molecular phylogeny, resulting in what may be the earliest eucaryotes, land plants, and flowering plants along with revised concepts of seed plant evolution.