Dr. Banisha Phukela - Post-doctoral Researcher
Research Interests
Plants acquire traits that allow them to colonize different habitats and ecosystems. My interest lies in understanding traits that act as cues for pollination viz., floral architecture (color, shapes and size) and floral nectary. The focus of my research is to understand the morphological and anatomical diversity of a trait present in a taxon, and understand the evolutionary trends at the clade level. For this I utilize microscopic (Resin sections as well as Scanning Electron Micrographs) as well as phylogenetic approach. Further, to explain divergent morphologies of a given trait at a molecular level, I use bioinformatic tools and expression studies to determine genes associated with the trait evolution. My present aim is to understand the molecular basis of polymorphic (color) populations in Anemones.