Investigator, Laboratories of Analytical Biology; Curator, Botany
National Museum of Natural History
Smithsonian Institution
PO Box 37012
MRC 534
Washington, D.C. 20013-7012
zimmer@lab.si.edu
Research Interests
Studies of the patterns and process of molecular evolution in green plants. Origins of flowering plants and of vascular plants. Molecular systematics and biogeography.
Current Research Projects
Molecular phylogenetics of Pacific plants, in collaboration with Warren Wagner. Molecular phylogenetics and developmental evolution of the Gesneriaceae (African violet family) with Laurence Skog. The American Roots of English Gardens.
Recent Publications
Zimmer, E.A., Roalson, E.H., Skog, L.E., Boggan, J.K. and Idnurm, A. (2002) “Phylogenetic relationships in the Gesnerioideae (Gesneriaceae) based on nrDNA ITS and cpDNA trnL-F and trnE-T spacer region sequences.” Amer. Jnl. Bot.,89: 296-311.
Gemmill, C., Allan, G., Wagner, W.L. and Zimmer, E.A. (2002) “Evolution of Insular Pacific Pittosporum (Pittosporaceae): Origin of the Hawaiian Radiation.” Mol. Phylog. Evol., 22, 31-42.
Karol, K., Suh, Y., Schatz, G. and Zimmer, E. (2000). “Molecular evidence for the phylogenetic position of Takhtajania in the Winteraceae: Evidence from nuclear ribosomal and chloroplast gene spacers.” Ann. Mo. Bot. Garden, 87, 414-432.
Qiu, Y.-L., Lee, J., Bernasconi-Quadroni,
F., Soltis, D., Soltis, P., Zanis, M., Zimmer, E., Chen, Z., Savolainen,
V. and Chase, M. (1999) "The earliest angiosperms: Evidence from mitochondrial, plastid and nuclear
genomes." Nature, 402, 404-407.
Kuzoff, R.K., Sweere, J. A., Soltis, D., Soltis, P. and Zimmer, E.A. (1998) "The
phylogenetic potential of entire 26S rDNA sequences in plants." Mol.
Biol. Evol. 15, 251-263.
Hershkovitz, M.A. and Zimmer, E.A. (1997) "On the evolutionary origins
of the cacti" Taxon, 46, 217-232.
Hershkovitz, M.A. and Zimmer, E.A. (1996) "Conservation patterns in angiosperm rDNA-ITS2 sequences" Nucleic Acids Research, 24, 2857-2867.
Wen, J. and Zimmer, E.A. (1996) "Phylogeny of Panax L. (the Ginseng Genus, Araliaceae):
Inference from ITS sequences of nuclear ribosomal DNA." Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 5, 167-177.
Doyle, J.A., Donoghue, M.J. and Zimmer, E.A. (1994) "Integration of morphological
and ribosomal RNA data on the origin of angiosperms." Ann. Mo. Bot. Gdn., 81(2), 419-450.
Zimmer, E., White, T., Cann, R. and Wilson, A., eds. (1993) Methods in Molecular
Evolution: Producing the Biochemical Data, Methods in Enzymology, 224, 725 pp.