How Flowers Choose a Mate

"Let a thousand flowers bloom," goes the old saying. But how? Grace Burgin, a Harvard Griffin GSAS PhD student in organismic and evolutionary biology, studies the way that flowering plants selectively choose the pollen of mates rather than their own to avoid inbreeding. In so doing, she not only uncovers novel genetic pathways in plants' reproductive systems but also explores the evolutionary implications of these mechanisms, offering insights into how diversity arises and is maintained in flower populations. Burgin's research brings us a step closer to understanding the natural world around us.