Welcome to the Nabity Lab

Plants respond to their environment and other organisms within that context in unique but often predictable ways. How plants alter their phenotype in response to stress, and why this response evolved are the major foci for the lab, especially in relationship to species interactions. In particular, we focus on how and why herbivores feed the ways they do, and how plant parasites cope with resource limitations. Our research seeks to understand how plant phenotypes change when under attack, whether by herbivores or other parasites, and also how rapidly changing climate can modify plant physiology and morphology in ways that then alter interactions with both antagonist and mutualist insects. Some of our general questions include:

1. What determines inducible phenotypes, including how do arthropods avoid or tolerate plant defensive phenotypes, and how do insects avoid or surmount defenses?
2. How do plants and insects coordinate complex inducible phenotypes, such as those that occur during gall formation, and
3. How does a rapidly changing climate modify plant physiology and morphology in ways that then alter interactions with both antagonist and mutualists?
4. How do resources alter interactions between plants and their antagonists, including herbivores or hemiparasitic plants?

We answer these questions from the perspective of the plant or insect or both to understand how induced changes or phenotypic plasticity is adaptive for either organism?​

One current project focuses on the genome evolution in a subset of insects within the Phylloxeridae, an understudied insect family of high trait diversity. These insects largely occur in the eastern US but many free-living species are found on oaks here in California. We are exploring the interactions among these insects and their host plants, using genomics and transcriptomics to understand how galling arose, and how microbes enable their life styles.

We also look across taxa to improve our understanding of how root and shoot feeding herbivores successfully colonize and modify their host plant phenotypes. Although the initial focus is on two agricultural systems, the wooly aphid-apple and the phylloxera-grape interactions, we are broadly interested in how insects co-opt plant form and function. Here we use novel ecological interactions to understand plant phenotypic plasticity, insect virulence, and the mechanisms underlying these concepts.

Another project in its infancy focuses on hemiparasites or plant parasites that still retain photosynthesis but steal resources from other plants. We use an eco-physiological and genetics approach to understand how hemiparasites interact with their hosts and conspecifics under resource limitations.

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS!!
If you are interested in learning more about plant ecology on any of the above systems, or gaining molecular or computational experience, we do have positions in the lab for volunteers and sometimes paid work. Please contact me with your CV and interest in the lab: pauln[at]ucr.edu
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Interested in Graduate School?
The Nabity lab is accepting graduate students interested in using molecular techniques to answer ecological questions. Students can apply through several departments including: Botany & Plant Sciences, Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, and Entomology. If interested, please contact me with the following:

• CV
• specific research interests
• AND why my lab is a good fit

Failure to specifically address the lab interests OR how you will fit your project ideas into our program may delay a response. Additional information can be found here.

POSTDOCS should contact me if you are interested in working together to apply for external funding.
There are no open opportunities at this time.

Some external funding agencies can be viewed here. 

an artistic interpretation of the lab's research, copyright Robert Mitchell, chemical ecologist extraordinaire.

Apple orchards in spring can be quite peaceful.