STARS, Summer 2002

This summer the lab hosted Michelle Howard, who will be a senior at Westminster Christian Academy, and Rohini Sankaran, who will be a junior at John Burroughs School. Both students learned to sequence DNA and to analyze molecular sequence data. Michelle worked with Jan Barber on three genera of Australian grasses. She found that species on the coast, growing in damp salty habitats, were closely related to inland species, growing in dry salty habitats. Rohini worked with Patrick Sweeney on tropical species of Garcinia. She found that the previous morphological classification was not correct, and that the mangosteen ("Queen of Fruits") is actually related to some species that look quite different.