Kathleen M. Pryer

Professor in the Department of Biology

Office: 
358 Bio Sci Bldg, Durham, NC 27708
Campus Box: 
Box 90338, Durham, NC 27708-0338
Phone: 
(919) 660-7380
Kathleen M. Pryer
My research focuses on understanding the evolutionary relationships of ancient land plants, especially ferns and horsetails, by integrating evidence from morphology, molecules (DNA sequence data from multiple genes), and the fossil record. I use an explicit phylogenetic framework to examine the morphological evolution of various sporophytic and gametophytic characters within vascular plants, and to gain insight into the evolution of various life history traits and the body plans that typify vascular plants. A phylogenetic perspective also informs my molecular evolutionary studies that attempt to elucidate why we observe remarkable rate heterogeneity in chloroplast genes in land plant phylogeny.

Education

  • Ph.D., Duke University 1995

  • M.S., University of Guelph (Canada) 1981

  • B.S., McGill University (Canada) 1976

Nagalingum, NS, Nowak, MD, and Pryer, KM. "Assessing phylogenetic relationships in extant heterosporous ferns (Salviniales), with a focus on Pilularia and Salvinia." Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 157, no. 4 (2008): 673-685. Full Text

Haugen, P, Bhattacharya, D, Palmer, JD, Turner, S, Lewis, LA, and Pryer, KM. "Cyanobacterial ribosomal RNA genes with multiple, endonuclease-encoding group I introns." Bmc Evolutionary Biology 7 (September 8, 2007): 159-null. Full Text

Schuettpelz, E, Schneider, H, Huiet, L, Windham, MD, and Pryer, KM. "A molecular phylogeny of the fern family Pteridaceae: assessing overall relationships and the affinities of previously unsampled genera." Mol Phylogenet Evol 44, no. 3 (September 2007): 1172-1185. Full Text

Korall, P, Conant, DS, Metzgar, JS, Schneider, H, and Pryer, KM. "A molecular phylogeny of scaly tree ferns (Cyatheaceae)." American Journal of Botany 94, no. 5 (May 2007): 873-886. Full Text

Schuettpelz, E, and Pryer, KM. "Fern phylogeny inferred from 400 leptosporangiate species and three plastid genes." Taxon 56, no. 4 (2007): 1037-1050.

Metzgar, JS, Schneider, H, and Pryer, KM. "Phylogeny and divergence time estimates for the fern genus Azolla (Salviniaceae)." International Journal of Plant Sciences 168, no. 7 (2007): 1045-1053. Full Text

Nagalingum, NS, Schneider, H, and Pryer, KM. "Molecular phylogenetic relationships and morphological evolution in the heterosporous fern genus Marsilea." Systematic Botany 32, no. 1 (2007): 16-25. Full Text

Smith, AR, Pryer, KM, Schuettpelz, E, Korall, P, Schneider, H, and Wolf, PG. "A Classification for Extant Ferns." Taxon 55, no. 3 (August 1, 2006): 705-705. Full Text

Korall, P, Pryer, KM, Metzgar, JS, Schneider, H, and Conant, DS. "Tree ferns: monophyletic groups and their relationships as revealed by four protein-coding plastid loci." Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 39, no. 3 (June 2006): 830-845. Full Text

Schuettpelz, E, and Pryer, KM. "Reconciling extreme branch length differences: decoupling time and rate through the evolutionary history of filmy ferns." Syst Biol 55, no. 3 (June 2006): 485-502. Full Text

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