Dr. Andrea Gschwend

     Andrea eared her B.A. degree from Augustana College and her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, in Plant Biology.  Her graduate research focused on crop genomics and papaya sex chromosome evolution.  She carried out her postdoctoral studies at the University of Chicago to continue evolutionary genomics research.  She was awarded the NIH NRSA fellowship to study the role of newly evolved genes in the reproductive fitness of Drosophila melanogaster, as well as contributed to new gene evolution studies in rice.  Dr. Gschwend taught General Biology and Genetics for a year at Loyola University, Chicago, before returning to her crop genomics “roots” as an Assistant Professor at The Ohio State University, in the Department of Horticulture and Crop Science.

     Research in the Gschwend lab focuses on understanding how evolutionary forces shape the architecture of crop genomes and contribute to novel traits.  The Gschwend lab uses evolutionary genomics, transcriptomics, and functional genetics techniques to detect and analyze genes contributing to desirable agronomic phenotypes, with the goal of crop improvement.  Currently, the Gschwend lab is investigating the evolutionary genomics of wild and cultivated grapevine species and the genetic variation that underlies adaptive traits, such as environmental stress tolerance, in grapevine and pennycress.