Education

Ph.D (2000). The Pennsylvania State University, USA, Department of Biology option in Molecular Evolutionary Genetics.Title: Partial self-incompatibility in Campanula rapunculoides L. (Campanulaceae): genetic and molecular bases, parental effects and the role of pollinator limitation on selfing rates. 2000.Funded through a NSF research assistanceship and grant awarded to Dr. Andrew Stephenson.

Masters (1996): The Pennsylvania State University, USA, Department of Biology option in Molecular Evolutionary Genetics. Title. Population structure of Dipodomys ingens (Heteromyidae, Rodentia): The role of spatial heterogeneity in maintaining genetic diversity. Funded by a Smithsonian Institution Research Fellowship.

Baccalaureate of Science (1991). University of Toronto, Canada. Major Zoology. Honours thesis: Biomechanics of heterocercal tail locomotion in sharks.

Baccalaureate of Arts (1987). Queen’s University, Canada. Major Philosophy.

Research Interests

I am a population geneticist.I am currently working as a post-doctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Luis Eguiarte Fruns.My main interest is in studying the evolution of self-fertilization in flowering plants.Mechanisms that ensure outcrossing, such as genetic self-incompatibility systems and spatial or temporal separation of male and female functions, are believed to play an important role in the diversification of flowering plants.On the contrary, species that reproduce primarily through self-fertilization are usually considered an evolutionary dead-end.I am interested in studying the factors that select for self-fertilization to understand the evolutionary forces driving this mode of reproduction and its evolutionary potential (is it really an evolutionary dead end?).To this end, I am involved in a variety of projects that study 1): population level factors that select for self-fertilization 2) the role of polyploidization in the evolution of self-fertilization 3) the genetic and molecular basis of traits that determine morphological or physiological changes that accompany transitions from cross to self fertilization 4) analytical approaches to understanding the role of fluctuations in pollinator abundance on the evolution of self fertilization.

My current empirical projects involve plants from three angiosperm families: the Cactaceae, Solanaceae and Campanulaceae.All three of these families are ancestrally self-incompatible.In the Cactaceae I am studying the evolution of self-fertilization in polyploid populations. In the Solanaceae, I am studying the number of times that self-incompatibility has been lost or re-gained across the phylogenetic range of the family while looking for traits (ecological and genetic) that are associated with its loss.In the Solanaceae I have another project specifically aimed at understanding the quantitative genetic basis of changes in floral size and anther-stigma separation in Datura.In the Campanulaceae, I am investigating the role of population structure in maintaining a mixed mating system in the partially self-incompatible herb, Campanula rapunucloides.

Publications

1. Good, S.V., Williams, D.F, Ralls, K. and R.C. Fleischer. 1997. Population Structure of Dipodomys ingens (Heteromyidae): The role of spatial heterogeneity in maintaining genetic diversity.Evolution 51(4):1296-1310.

2. Stephenson, A. G, Good, S.V., Vogler, D.2000 Interrelationship of inbreeding depression, plasticity in the self-incompatibility system and the breeding system in Campanula rapunculoides L. (Campanulaceae).Annals of Botany 85: 211-220.

3.Good-Avila, S.V., Frey, F. and A. G. Stephenson (2001). The effect of partial self-incompatibility on the breeding system of Campanula rapunculoides L. (Campanulaceae) under conditions of natural pollination.International Journal of Plant Sciences 162(5) 1081-1087.

4. Good-Avila, S.V. and A. G. Stephenson.The inheritance of modifiers conferring self-fertility in the partially self-incompatible perennial Campanula rapunculoides L. (Campanulaceae).In press, Evolution.

Manuscripts (Submitted)

Good-Avila, S. V and A. G. Stephenson.Breeding system evolution in Campanula rapunculoides:Genetic and non-genetic parental effects on reproductive success in plants differing in their strength of self-incompatibility.In review, American Naturalist.

Good-Avila, S.V., Nagel, T. and A. G. Stephenson.The effect of inbreeding depression on male fitness and self-fertility in Campanula rapunculoides (Campanulaceae).Submitted to Journal of Evolutionary Biology.

Manuscripts (in preparation)

Good-Avila, S.V. and A. G. Stephenson.The genetic basis of self-incompatibility in Campanula rapunculoides L. (Campanulaceae) In preparation for submission to Sexual Plant Reproduction.

Good-Avila, S.V.A model on the effect of pollinator limitation on the evolution of mixed mating systems.