Lena Hileman

Associate Professor
Evolutionary Developmental Biology
Ph.D. Harvard University
Phone: (785) 864-5861
Fax: (785) 864-5860
Email:
Hileman Lab Webpage

Area of Interest and Research

Why is there such an amazing diversity of flower form? One reason is that flowers have been shaped over evolutionary time by selective pressures imposed through plant-pollinator interactions. However, in order for different floral forms to evolve, changes must occur in the underlying genetic programs that specify flower developmental patterning. In my lab we study how these flower developmental programs have evolved, through changes in gene number, gene expression and protein function, to pattern differences in flower form between species. This field of research is called developmental evolution or “evo-devo”. To address questions of flower developmental evolution, we take a number of diverse approaches including phylogenetic studies, molecular developmental genetic approaches, and studies of molecular evolution.

To read more about current research projects in the Hileman lab, please visit the Hileman Lab Home Page: http://www.people.ku.edu/~lhileman

Representative Publications

Preston JC, MA Kost, LC Hileman. In press. Conservation and diversification of the symmetry developmental program among close relatives of snapdragon with divergent floral morphologies. New Phytologist.

Preston, J.C., and Hileman, L.C. 2010. SQUAMOSA-PROMOTER BINDING PROTEIN 1 initiates flowering in Antirrhinum majus through the activation of meristem identity genes. The Plant Journal 62:704-712.

Preston JC, LC Hileman. 2009. Developmental genetics of floral symmetry evolution. Trends in Plant Science 14(3):147–154.

Hileman LC, VF Irish. 2009. More is better: The uses of developmental genetic data to reconstruct perianth evolution. American Journal of Botany 96:83–95.

Drea S, LC Hileman, G de Martino, VF Irish. 2007. Functional analyses of genetic pathways controlling petal specification in poppy. Development 134:4157–4166.

Hileman, L.C., J. Sundstrom, A. Litt, M.Q. Chen, T. Shumba and V.F. Irish. 2006. Molecular and phylogenetic analyses of the MADS-box gene family in Tomato. Molecular Biology and Evolution. 23(11):2245–2258.

Baum, D. A. and L.C. Hileman. 2006. Genetic model for the origin of flowers. Chap. 1 in “Flowering and its manipulation” (C. Ainsworth, ed.), Blackwell Publishing, Sheffield, UK.

Hileman, L.C., S. Drea, G. de Martino, A. Litt, and V.F. Irish. 2005. Virus-induced gene silencing is an effective tool for assaying gene function in the basal eudicot species Papaver somniferum (opium poppy). The Plant Journal 44(2): 334–341.

Hileman, L.C., E.M. Kramer and D.A. Baum. 2003. Differential regulation of symmetry genes and the evolution of floral morphologies. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 100(22):12814–12819.

Hileman, L.C., and D.A. Baum. 2003. Why do paralogs persist? Molecular evolution of CYCLOIDEA and related floral symmetry genes in Antirrhineae (Veronicaceae). Molecular Biology and Evolution 20(4): 591–600.

Shu, G., W. Amaral, L.C. Hileman and D.A. Baum. 2000. LEAFY and the evolution of rosette flowering in violet cress (Jonopsidium acaule, Brassicaceae). American Journal of Botany 87:634–641.