​The Yang Lab studies plant systematics and evolution.

We combine field and collection-based approaches with phylogenetics, transcriptomics, and genomics to reconstruct species relationships and to study polyploidy, reticulate evolution, and gene families involved in secondary metabolites, chromosome evolution, and stress tolerance. 
Lab News
  • Sep 2019: Alexandra Crum joins the lab as a Ph.D. student working on combining plant phylogenomics with ethnobotany. Alex is a Minnesota native. She just finished up her master's degree on plant systematics with Dr. Tim Evans at the Grand Valley State University, MI. Welcome, Alex!
  • Jun 2019: the entire lab (Diego, Rebekah, and Ya) went to the Evolution meeting in Providence, RI. Diego presented a talk on his Amaranthaceae phylogenomics project, and Rebekah presented a poster on chromosome evolution in Drosera.
  • May 2019: Nan Lin, Ph.D. student at Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, is awarded a China Scholarship Council fellowship for a 12-month visit to the lab. Welcome, Nan!
  • May 2019: Rebekah passed her prelim exam and is now officially a Ph.D. candidate. Congratulations, Rebekah!
  • Mar 2019: Rebekah is awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to visit Australia for 10 months for her dissertation research on Drosera. ​She will be hosted by Dr. Adam Cross at the Curtin University in Australia. Congratulations!
  • Oct 2018: Delphine Tefarikis (from Prof. Gudrun Kadereit's lab) is visiting from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany. She is working with Diego Morales on reticulate evolution and C4 photosynthesis in Chenopods. 
  • Oct 2018: Ya participated in the ADBC summit in Gainesville, FL, to kick start the Endless Form TCN project digitizing specimens from families with specialized adaptations such as carnivory, succulence, epiphytes etc. 
  • Sep 2018: Diego and Ya visited Mexico City for the Caryophyllales 2018 meeting, each gave a talk, and co-taught a phylogenomic workshop with Mike Moore. 
  • Jul 2018: We had a blast at the Botany meeting in Rochester, MN with three talks (Mohn, Morales, and Yang) and one poster (Chen).
  • Jul 2018: Rebekah had a busy summer. She collected Drosera in MT and ID right after finishing her OTS Tropical Plant Systematics course in Costa Rica. 
  • Jun 2018: Diego and Chen presented their work at the Society of Systematic Biologists meeting in Columbus OH.
  • Jun 2018: Rebekah won two awards from the Botanical Society of America: the Triarch Botanical Images Travel Award and the Karling Award that supports the best graduate student research proposal. Congrats again!
  • May 2018: Rebekah won the American Society of Plant Taxonomists' t-shirt contest with a beautiful drawing of the twinflower (Linnaea borealis). She also won the Bell Museum Natural History Awards to support her summer field research. With that she just finished a week-long trip collecting Drosera in the east coast. Congratulations!
  • Mar 2018: Rebekah visited University of Michigan over the spring break to work with Stephen Smith on niche evolution in Drosera and participated in the Early Career Scientists Symposium. 
  • Jan 2018: Lab manager Yinyin Huang is accepted by her dream PharmD program at University of Minnesota, starting Fall 2018. Congratulations!
  • Oct 2017: First lab trip! Missouri Botanical Garden Fall Symposium​​