Faculty
Norman C. Ellstrand
Professor of Genetics/Director of the Biotechnology Impacts Center (Ph.D., 1978, University of Texas, Austin)
Office: 4158 Batchelor Hall
Phone: (951) 827-4194
Fax: (951) 827-4437
Email: norman.ellstrand@ucr.edu
Norm Ellstrand has two interlocking research interests:
(1) The Significance of Gene Flow as an Evolutionary Force: Gene flow is a largely neglected, but potentially important, factor in evolution. His research group has demonstrated that plant interpopulation gene flow rates were much higher than previously anticipated and that these rates vary substantially from population to population.
(2) Applied Plant Population Genetics. Presently, the following issues are under scrutiny in his lab: (a) gene flow and hybridization as factors in the evolution of increased invasiveness, (b) consequences of unintentional gene flow from domesticated plants to their relatives, and (c) positive and negative impacts of genetically engineered crops, especially with regard to unintentional transgene flow.
Some Representative Publications:
Hegde S. G., J. D. Nason, J. Clegg, and N. C. Ellstrand. 2006. The evolution of California’s wild radish has resulted in the extinction of its progenitors. Evolution 60: 1187-1197.
Burger, J. C., S. Lee., and N. C. Ellstrand. 2006. Origin and genetic structure of feral rye in the western United States. Molecular Ecology 15: 2527-2539.
Ellstrand N.C. 2003. Dangerous Liaisons? When Cultivated Plants Mate with Their Wild Relatives. John Hopkins University Press, Balitmore, MD. [online] URL: http://www.press.jhu.edu.
Ellstrand, NC. 2003. Current knowledge of gene flow in plants: implications for transgene flow. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. B 358:1163-1170.
Ellstrand, NC. 2003. Going to "Great Lengths" to prevent the escape of genes that produce specialty chemicals. Plant Physiology. 132:1770-1774. http://www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/reprint/132/4/1770
Ellstrand, N. C. 2001. When transgenes wander, should we worry? Plant Physiology 125: 1543-1545. http://www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/reprint/125/4/1543
Ellstrand, N. C., K. Schierenbeck. 2000. Hybridization as a stimulus for the evolution of invasiveness in plants? Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 97: 7043-7050.
Lab Staff & Students:
Visit our NSF biocomplexity blog at: http://www.ucmaizebiocomplexity.blogspot.com/
Janet Clegg, Staff Research Associate
Melinda Zaragoza, Postdoc
Subray Hegde, Postdoc
Lesley Blancas, Postdoc
Jutta Burger, Graduate Student
Andraya Gough, Graduate Student
Caroline Ridley, Graduate Student
Janet Garcia, Graduate Student
JoAnne Heraty, Laboratory Assistant
Thearith Seng, Undergraduate Student
Rosamond Tsao, Undergraduate Student