Sebastian Martinez-Salazar

I am an evolutionary-developmental biologist broadly interested in understanding molecular mechanisms responsible for the evolution of plant form. I completed my undergraduate and master's dissertations at the University of Antioquia in Colombia, studying flower development in Andean species of nasturtiums (Tropaeolum). Now, I am interested in using additional tools, such as comparative transcriptomics and functional analysis, to explore how floral novelties, especially nectar spurs, have evolved in Tropaeolum and how different the evolutionary mechanisms were compared to those in other groups of plants, such as Aquilegia.