Brent D. Mishler

Professor

Lab: Mishler Lab

Email: bmishler@berkeley.edu
Office phone: 642-6810

Full contact information

Research interests

My research interests can be grouped into two main areas:  empirical studies of ecology, phylogeny, systematics, and development of bryophytes, and the theoretical basis of systematic and evolutionary biology.

Empirical studies include: (1) the phylogenetic relationships of the major groups of bryophytes and other green plants, using morphological, developmental, and ultrastructural characters as well as chloroplast DNA sequence data; (2) the development of moss peristomes in relation to evolution of the group; and (3) biosystematic studies of the haplolepideous mosses, including the tropical family Calymperaceae and the diverse temperate genus Tortula (Syntrichia), which involve remote-sensing, transplant, and ecological studies in the field, comparative physiological measurements and culture experiments in the lab, and morphological studies in the herbarium; (4) the reproductive biology of bryophytes, especially dryland mosses; and (5) the bryophyte flora of California and of Moorea (in the Society Islands of the South Pacific). 

Theoretical studies include investigations of the nature of species, principles of rank-free classification, methods for phylogenetic reconstruction (with an emphasis on cladistic analysis of molecular and genomic data), the relationship between development and evolution, and phyloinformatics (comparative genomics, databasing, and visualization of phylogenetic trees).

Selected publications

Graham, E.A., M.P. Hamilton, B.D. Mishler, P.W. Rundel, and M.H. Hansen.  2006.  Use of a networked digital camera to estimate net CO2 uptake of a desiccation-tolerant moss.  International Journal of Plant Sciences 167: 751-758.

M.J. Oliver, J. Velten, and B.D. Mishler.  2005.  Desiccation tolerance in bryophytes: A reflection of the primitive strategy for plant survival in dehydrating habitats?  Integrative and Comparative Biology 45: 788-799.

B.D. Mishler. 2005.  The logic of the data matrix in phylogenetic analysis. In V.A. Albert (ed.), Parsimony, Phylogeny, and Genomics, pp. 57-70.   Oxford University Press.

L.R. Stark, D.N. McLetchie, and B.D. Mishler. 2005. Sex expression, plant size, and spatial segregation of the sexes across a stress gradient in the desert moss Syntrichia caninervis. The Bryologist 108: 184-193.

D.G. Kelch, A. Driskell, and B.D. Mishler.  2004.  Inferring phylogeny using genomic characters: a case study using land plant plastomes,  In B. Goffinet, V. Hollowell, and R. Magill (eds.), Molecular Systematics of Bryophytes [Monographs in Systematic Botany 98], pp. 3-12.  Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis.

Mishler, B.D. 2003. Phylogeny. In Keywords and Concepts in Evolutionary Developmental Biology, ed. B.K. Hall and W.M. Olson, 298-308. Harvard University Press.

L. R. Stark, D.N. McLetchie, and B.D. Mishler. 2001.  Sex expression and sex dimorphism in sporophytic populations of the desert moss Syntrichia caninervis.  Plant Ecology  157: 181-194.

Mishler, B.D. 2000. Deep phylogenetic relationships among "plants" and their implications for classification. Taxon 49: 661-683.

Shaw, J., L.E. Anderson, and B.D. Mishler. 2000. Paedomorphic sporophyte development in Bruchia flexuosa (Bruchiaceae). The Bryologist 103:147-155.

A.E. Newton, C.J. Cox, J.G. Duckett, J. Wheeler, B. Goffinet, T.A.J. Hedderson, and B.D. Mishler. 2000. Evolution of the major moss lineages: phylogenetic analyses based on multiple gene sequences and morphology. The Bryologist 103: 187-211.

Mishler, B.D. 1999. Getting rid of species? In Species: New Interdisciplinary Essays, ed. R. Wilson, 307-315. MIT Press.