Jennifer M. Dechaine, Associate Professor Science Building, Room 236D 400 E. University Way Ellensburg, WA 98926-7537 (509) 963-2878 email: dechaine@cwu.edu

Education

Ph. D, University of Minnesota (Plant Biology), 2008
B.A., Luther College (Biology), 2003

Teaching

Fundamentals of Biology, Science Education in the Elementary School

Research Interests

Plant evolutionary genetics 
 

I am interested in the genetic basis of adaptive traits in plants. My laboratory employs field and laboratory research techniques to investigate many aspects of plant adaptation, including adaptation to novel environments, the effects of crop domestication and transgenic modification on wild plant populations, and the evolution of weedy and invasive species.

Recent Publications

• J. M. Dechaine, J.C. Burger, and J.M. Burke. 2010. Ecological patterns and genetic analysis of post-dispersal seed predation in sunflower (Helianthus annuus) crop-wild hybrids. Molecular Ecology 19: 3477-3488.
• J. M. Dechaine, J.C. Burger, M.A. Chapman, G.J. Seiler, R. Brunick, S.J. Knapp, and J.M. Burke. 2009. Fitness effects and genetic architecture of plant-herbivore interactions in sunflower crop-wild hybrids. New Phytologist 184: 828-841.
• J. M. Dechaine, G. Gardner, and C. Weinig. 2009. Phytochromes differentially regulate seed germination responses to light quality and temperature cues during seed maturation. Plant, Cell and Environment 32: 1297-1309.
• J. M. Dechaine, J. A. Johnston, M. T. Brock, and C. Weinig. 2007. Constraints on the evolution of adaptive plasticity: costs of plasticity are expressed in segregating progenies. New Phytologist 176: 874-882.
• C. Weinig, M. T. Brock, J. M. Dechaine, and S. M. Welsh. 2007. Resolving the genetic basis of invasiveness and predicting invasions. Genetica 129: 205-216.