Dr. Michelle M. McMahon
Division of Plant Biology, Genetics and Genomics
Research Assistant Professor
UA Herbarium
Curator
Herring Hall, Room 104
Phone: (520) 621-7243
Email: mcmahonm@ag.arizona.edu
 

Visit these web-sites to learn more about Dr. McMahon and her research

 
   
Background and Interests
 
Michelle (Shelley) McMahon received a Ph.D. in Botany from Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, in 2002. She received a Master's Degree and a Bachelor of Science in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Arizona. Here at the University of Arizona she teaches Systematic Botany, PL S/ECOL 472/572. She also teaches at the Applied Phylogenetics Workshop, held annually at Bodega Bay, California.


Her research interests include phylogenetic systematics, especially of the legume plant family, large-scale phylogenomic methods, including supermatrix construction, and the evolution of floral morphology using standard developmental techniques and genomic-scale microarray analyses in a comparative context. Ongoing projects include evaulating the use of EST libraries and data mined from large public nucleotide sequence databases for phylogenetic inference; systematics of Dalea, Marina, and Psorothamnus (Fabaceae); comparative genomics of floral variation in Lepidium (Brassicaceae). Recent and past projects include evaluating a test for molecular evolution according to a covarion model, collaborative work in the Loasaceae and Veroniceae, and, in her more distant past, inference of recent divergence among jumping spiders of SE Arizona.

 
Publications
 
McMahon, M. M. and M. J. Sanderson. 2006. Phylogenetic supermatrix analysis of GenBank sequences from 2228 Papilionoid legumes. Systematic Biology 55: 818-836.

McMahon, M. M. 2005. Phylogenetic relationships and floral evolution in the papilionoid legume clade Amorpheae. Brittonia 57: 397-411.

McMahon, M. M. and L. Hufford. 2005. Evolution and development in the amorphoid clade (Amorpheae: Papilionoideae: Leguminosae): petal loss and dedifferentiation. International Journal of Plant Sciences 166: 383-396.

Ané, C., J. G. Burleigh, M. M. McMahon, and M. J. Sanderson. 2005. Covarion structure in plastid genome evolution: a new statistical test. Molecular Biology and Evolution 22:914-924.

Hufford, L., M. M. McMahon, R. O’Quinn, M. S. Poston. 2005. A phylogenetic analysis of Loasaceae subfamily Loasoideae based on plastid DNA sequences. International Journal of Plant Sciences 166:289-300.

Driskell, A. C., C. Ané, J. G. Burleigh, M. M. McMahon, B. C. O’Meara, and M. J. Sanderson. 2004. Prospects for building the tree of life from large sequence databases. Science 306:1172-1174.

McMahon, M. and L. Hufford. 2004. Phylogeny of Amorpheae (Fabaceae: Papilionoideae). American Journal of Botany 91:1217-1228.

Hufford, L. and M. McMahon. 2004. Morphological evolution and systematics of Synthyris and Besseya (Veroniceae): a phylogenetic analysis. Systematic Botany 29:716-736.

Hufford, L. and M. McMahon. 2003. Beyond morphoclines and trends: the elements of diversity and the phylogenetic patterning of morphology. In T. F. Stuessy, V. Mayer & E. Hörandl (eds.). Deep Morphology: Toward a Renaissance of Morphology in Plant Systematics. Koeltz, Königstein.

Hufford, L., M. M. McMahon, A. M. Sherwood, G. Reeves, and M. W. Chase. 2003. The major clades of Loasaceae: phylogenetic analysis using the plastid matK and trnL-trnF regions. American Journal of Botany 90:1215-1228.

McMahon, M. and L. Hufford. 2002. Morphology and structural homology of corolla-androecium synorganization in the tribe Amorpheae (Fabaceae: Papilionoideae). American Journal of Botany 89(12):1884-1898.

Maddison, W. and M. McMahon. 2000. Divergence and reticulation among montane populations of a jumping spider (Habronattus pugillis Griswold). Systematic Biology 49:400-421.
       
 
 


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