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Kathleen M. Pryer

Professor of Biology
Biology
Box 90338, Durham, NC 27708-0338
358 Bio Sci Bldg, Durham, NC

Research Interests


  • 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 body plans that typify vascular plants.
  • Integrating plastome, transcriptome, RNA-editing, morphological, ecological, and life history data, to yield new insights into the correlates underlying the observed molecular evolutionary rate variation  encountered across the tree of life, especially in ferns. 
  • Examining polyploidy and apomixis in ferns. Systematics of cheilanthoid (desert) ferns.
  • Recently pursuing a new research collaboration with Dr. Tomasi (Duke, Computer Science) and Dr. Meineke (UC-Davis, Entomology) to apply machine learning and computer vision algorithms to investigate long term insect-plant interactions preserved on digitized herbarium specimens.
  • Strategic planning for collections-based institutes, especially herbaria.

Selected Grants


DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Evolution and Function of Farina in the Desiccation-tolerant Notholaenid Ferns (Pteridaceae)

Inst. Training Prgm or CMEPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 2017 - 2022

Oceans Apart: Assessing the roles of Vicariance and Long-distance Dispersal in the Widely Disjunct Fern Genus Cheilanthes (Pteridaceae)

Inst. Training Prgm or CMEPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Geographic Society · 2019 - 2019

Identifying those Pesky Mustards: The Boechera Digitization Project

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Andrew W. Mellon Foundation · 2014 - 2017

DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Evolution and Function of Farina in the Desiccation-tolerant Notholaenid Ferns (Pteridaceae)

Inst. Training Prgm or CMEPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 2017 - 2022

Oceans Apart: Assessing the roles of Vicariance and Long-distance Dispersal in the Widely Disjunct Fern Genus Cheilanthes (Pteridaceae)

Inst. Training Prgm or CMEPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Geographic Society · 2019 - 2019

Identifying those Pesky Mustards: The Boechera Digitization Project

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Andrew W. Mellon Foundation · 2014 - 2017

DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Early Evolution of Fungi and the Transition to a Terrestrial Lifestyle: Marine Habitats, the New Frontier

Inst. Training Prgm or CMEPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 2013 - 2017

Collaborative Research: Exploring the Evolution of an Extreme Makeover in Ferns

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 2012 - 2016

DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Assessing the Evolutionary Significance of Recurrent Horizontal Gene Transfer of a Chimeric Photoreceptor in Ferns

Inst. Training Prgm or CMEPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 2014 - 2016

DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Untangling the Cystopteris fragilis Complex: An Investigation of the Effects of Polploidy on Diversification Rates

Inst. Training Prgm or CMEPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 2011 - 2015

DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Patterns of Gene Expression in Allopolyploid Taxa of Recurrent Origin: A Case Study of the Polypod Ferns

Inst. Training Prgm or CMEPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 2011 - 2014

DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Subsexual Processes and the Origin of Genetic Variation in Asexual Ferns

Inst. Training Prgm or CMEPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 2011 - 2014

Collaborative Research: The Roles of Polyploidy and Apomixis in Shaping the Diversity and Distribution of Cheilanthoid Ferns

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 2007 - 2011

A plan to rehouse and reorganize the vascular plant herbarium and botanical library at Duke University (DUKE)

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 2007 - 2011

Career: Reconciling patterns of phylogenetic rate heterogenity in ferns with morphology, ecology and life history

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 2004 - 2010

DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Evolution and diversification of epiphytic ferns

Inst. Training Prgm or CMEPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 2004 - 2007

REU Site: Bioinformatic and Phylogenetic approaches to the study of plant and fungal biodiversity

Inst. Training Prgm or CMECo Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 2004 - 2007

Collaborative Research: Using phylogeny to investigate the history of morphological evolution in heterosporous ferns

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 2001 - 2005

Ontogeny and Phylogeny in the Aquatic Fern Family Marsileaceae

ResearchCo-Principal Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 1993 - 1995