The Hoffman Lab

A fundamental aim of evolutionary biology is to understand the diversity of phenotypes found in natural populations. This aim is the motivation behind my research to determine how genetic and phenotypic variation influence organismal evolution. My research moves along two major trajectories. First, I examine how and why populations maintain variation, and what patterns of variation tell us about evolution. Second, I study the molecular evolution of phenotypically novel traits. These two lines of inquiry are united under my research program's primary goal, which is to understand how the microevolutionary forces of genetic drift, natural selection, gene flow, and mutation interact to influence phenotypic and genetic diversity.

In the future, my research will continue to focus on the genetic basis and selective maintenance of morphological variation. I expect that such studies will shed light on various aspects of how morphological complexities evolve, such as variation in gene expression patterns within lineages and evolutionary constraints among lineages. My research program includes studies of: