Germán Avila Sakar
Baccalaureate: Facultad de Ciencias, UNAM, México (1991)
Doctorate: The
Assistant Professor
Department of Biology
The
· Projects
·
Students
· Student positions in my lab – Please inquire
· Courses
· Links
When will Ilex glabra
flower in the
It turns out that
My research
program focuses on the roles of resource allocation in the interrelationships
between the evolution of sexual systems and defence against herbivores in
flowering plants. One of the questions I am trying to answer is how certain
conditions of resource availability may favour the evolution of unisexuality in
plants, including changes in the relationship between fitness and the pattern of
resource allocation in a plant brought about by herbivory. In addressing this
question, I intend to increase our understanding of the physiological
mechanisms that regulate allocation of carbon and nutrients, the potential for
resource re-allocation in response to environmental stress factors such as
herbivory, and the consequences that particular allocation patterns might have
on the evolution of defence and sexual systems.
1. Herbivory in dioecious plant populations of
2. Resistance and tolerance to herbivory in Arabidopsis
3. Evolution of unisexuality in Cucurbita
4. The shape of the tolerance function in Brassica rapa
Undergraduate
Past students
Graduate
Nicholas
Buckley – M. Sc., Biology Graduate Program,
Undergraduate
Caroline Tucker – Honours, Biology,
Liam McNeil – Honours, Biology,
Rogelio Cruz Reyes – Honours, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (2005)
Carolyn Marshall – Honours,
Deana Sharpe –
Directed Studies
Jayne Bellefontaine – Directed Studies
Tessa Protasivich – NSERC-USRA summer research (2005, 2006)
Sarah Surette – NSERC-USRA summer research (2006)
Undergraduate positions
· Summer positions – Usually there are opportunities to work on some of the projects in my lab while being funded by an NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award – please inquire (also, contact Dr. Craig Willis (204)-786-9433).
· Examples of potential honours thesis projects
If you are interested in any of the other projects listed above, please inquire.
Graduate positions
· Partial
funding may be possible through a combination of student assistantships and
summer salary.
Post-doctoral positions
· Please enquire. Send a brief statement of research interests. I will be happy to support an application for a fellowship from an external funding agency. (e.g. NSERC, Fullbright, etc.)
BIOL 2153 – Biology of Vascular Plants
BIOL
3152 – Flora of
BIOL 2403 – Principles of Ecology
Recent Publications
Journal articles:
Avila-Sakar, G., Leist, L.L. and stephenson, A.G. 2006. Effects of the spatial pattern of leaf damage on growth and reproduction: whole plants. International Journal of Plant Sciences 167:1021-1028. Avila-Sakar, G., Leist, L.L. and stephenson, A.G. 2003. Effects of the spatial pattern of leaf damage on growth and reproduction: nodes and branches. Journal of Ecology 91: 867-879. Avila-Sakar, G., Simmers, S.M. and stephenson, A.G. 2003. The interrelationships among leaf damage, anther development, and pollen production in Cucurbita pepo ssp. texana (Cucurbitaceae). International Journal of Plant Sciences 164: 395-404. |
Avila-Sakar, G., Krupnick, G.A., and Stephenson, A.G. 2001. Growth and sex allocation in Cucurbita pepo ssp. texana: Effects of fruit removal. International Journal of Plant Sciences 162: 1089-1095. |
Krupnick, G.A., |
Avila-Sakar, G., and Domínguez, C.A. 2000. Parental effects and gender specialization in a tropical heterostylous shrub. Evolution 54: 866-877. |
Book chapters:
Domínguez, C.A. y Avila-Sakar, G. 2002. Erythroxylum havanense In Historia natural de Chamela. F.N. Martínez, J.V. Rivera y M.Q. Avendaño (eds.). Instituto de Biología, UNAM, México.
Reekie, E.G. and Avila-Sakar,
G. 2005. Contrasting
resource requirements of vegetative versus reproductive growth: implications
for reproductive allocation. Reekie E.G. and Bazzaz, F.A. (eds.) The Allocation
of Resources to Reproduction in Plants. Academic Press,
Other Universities
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)
Dalhousie University - Biology
Collaborators in other universities
Disclaimer:
The information on this website has
been developed by and is at the discretion of Germán Avila Sakar. The
information on this site is not published by The University of Winnipeg and
therefore The University of