Hereditypod - Meet the monkey flower: an emerging model

The genetic structure of a population can shape an organism’s ecology and evolution. However, that structure often changes depending on the geographic scale you’re looking at. In this episode Dr Alex Twyford (University of Edinburgh) discusses the complicated genetic structures displayed by an emerging model – the yellow monkey flower, Mimulus guttatus. A proud botanist, Dr Twyford also explores the issue of ‘plant blindness’: the unfortunate tendency of biologists to overlook the research value, and potential, of plant systems. Associated article: Multi-level patterns of genetic structure and isolation by distance in the widespread plant Mimulus guttatus https://www.nature.com/articles/s41437-020-0335-7