Post Doctoral
BSc (Hons)
| Contact Campus | Sandy Bay Campus |
| Building | Life Sciences Building |
| Room Reference | 429 |
| Telephone | +61 3 6226 2736 |
| Fax | +61 3 6226 2698 |
| Rebecca.Jones@utas.edu.au |
After finishing Honours at UTAS in 2000, Rebecca worked at the Centre for Plant Conservation Genetics (Southern Cross University) on the genetic effects of habitat fragmentation on rare rainforest trees (Elaeocarpus spp.), and then worked on various conservation genetics projects back at UTAS (Nothofagus, Eucalyptus). After travelling and living overseas for a year, Rebecca was inspired to return to study, and began her PhD studying the genetic relationships among populations of Eucalyptus globulus (blue gum), and the genetic and environmental factors influencing its flowering. This contributed to a risk assessment model to determine the probability and consequences of gene flow from bluegum plantations into native populations, and also identified populations of conservation significance.
Rebecca is currently working in an ARC funded postdoctoral position at the University of Tasmania studying species divergence and hybridisation in eucalypts. This involves using diversity array technology (DArT) in combination with the recently released Eucalyptus genome, to determine the number, location and identity of genes that contribute to reproductive isolation and phenotypic differences among species, and identify the genomic regions that are exchanged between naturally hybridising species.
Rebecca is also involved in various other projects, including the conservation genetics of Australian flora, and studies of gene expression and microRNAs (focusing on flowering and phase change genes). She has a keen interest in eucalypt genomics and was recently awarded a Churchill Fellowship to visit key international laboratories (in Europe and the USA) that are working with the Eucalyptus genome. During this trip (in mid-2011), she will investigate the research potential of the genomics resources and learn techniques for the analysis of the Eucalyptus genome sequence.