Linda Prince in the lab

RSABG houses a wealth of intellectual and physical assets.  Staff Research Associate Dr. Prince works in collaboration with the faculty and staff to achieve excellence in project design, data collection, and data analyses, especially for conservation applications.  Examples of potential projects include:

Environmental requirements
The germination requirements of many southern California plant species are relatively typical while others are extremely complex. Knowledge of the germination needs of difficult species is critical to the successful reintroduction of plants to reclaimed or recreated habitats.

Biosystematics
Chromosome pairing information is available for only a small percentage of plant species. This information can be used to document plants of hybrid origin and provide insight into an organism’s evolutionary history. RSABG has excellent anatomy facilities including light and SEM microscopy, digital capture, and traditional photography.

Population genetics
The molecular facilities at RSABG are equipped with modern fluorescent fragment analysis hardware (ABI 3130xl) used in AFLPs, ISSRs, and microsatellite detection. Traditional fluorescent detection methods (UV and a digital capture system) are used for RAPDs. These methods are generally restricted to very closely related organisms such as species, varieties of species, or populations.

Phylogenetics
The ABI 3130xl is also used for DNA sequencing.  Nucleic acid sequences can be used to determine relative relationships of organisms under a variety of criteria (parsimony, likelihood, distance, etc.) spanning a wide range of ranks from closely related species up to phyla depending on the genomic region sampled.

General consultation

Literature review and evaluation.

Examples of Recent Projects:

WILLOWY MONARDELLA (Monardella linoides subspecies viminea)
Willowy monardella is a species of mint endemic (restricted) to San Diego county and adjacent regions in Mexico. This species is closely related to Monardella linoides, also restricted to the southwestern US. RSABG collected DNA sequence data to help determine the exact relationship between willowy monardella and its closest relatives, but these data were inconclusive. Additional population genetic data collected will be used to elucidate relationships among taxa in this species group (Monardella linoides and Monardella odoratissima complex) help develop a federal management strategy for this species.

PEIRSON’S MILKVETCH (Astragalus magdalenae variety peirsonii)
Peirson's milkvetch is a southern California/Sonora plant of very restricted distribution. We collected phylogenetic data (DNA sequence data) and population genetic data (ISSRs) to determine the relationship among the populations in southern California and the population in Mexico. We estimated evolutionary relationships among close relatives of this species as well. The Sonoran (Mexico) population of Peirson's Milkvetch is genetically distinct from the Californian population.

Contact for additional information about this initiative: Dr. Prince.

Linda M. Prince, Ph.D  (Research Scientist)
Personal Page

Qualifications:
Dr. Prince received a B.A. in Botany from the University of Vermont, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Biology from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Her doctoral research focused on evolutionary relationships among genera of the tea family (Theaceae). Linda joined RSABG in 2001 to work as a post-doctoral fellow under the supervision of Dr. Elizabeth Friar, conducting population genetics research on members of the silversword alliance. She has over 20 years of laboratory and project management experience. For more information on Dr. Prince's personal research, please visit her webpage.