My lab is studies the genetic architecture of adaptation to human-dominated environments (e.g., cities, agricultural landscapes). Using plants as model systems, we conduct experiments, perform computer simulations, and analyze genomic sequencing data to understand the traits and genes that facilitate adaptation to contemporary environmental change. We are particularly interested in understanding the extent to which plants evolve in the same way when faced with similar environmental challenges (i.e., parallel evolution) and the factors that facilitate or constrain parallel evolutionary responses.
Selected publications
- Santangelo, J. S., Johnson, M. T. J., Ness, R. W. (2025). Signatures of selective sweeps in urban and rural white clover populations. Evolution: qpaf138.
- Santangelo, J. S., Battlay, P., Hendrickson, B. T., Kuo, W.-H., Olsen, K. M., Kooyers, N. J., Johnson, M. T. J., Hodgins, K. A., Ness, R. W. (2023). Haplotype-Resolved, Chromosome-Level Assembly of White Clover (Trifolium repens L., Fabaceae). Genome Biol. Evol. 15: evad146.
- Santangelo, J. S. (2022b). Global urban environmental change drives adaptation in white clover. Science 375: 1275–1281.
- Santangelo, J. S., Rivkin, L. R., Advenard, C., Thompson, K. A. (2020b). Multivariate phenotypic divergence along an urbanization gradient. Biol. Lett. 16: 20200511.
- Santangelo, J. S., Johnson, M. T. J., Ness, R. W. (2018a). Modern spandrels: the roles of genetic drift, gene flow and natural selection in the evolution of parallel clines. Proc. Biol. Sci. 285: 20180230.