Brent D. Mishler Director of the University & Jepson Herbaria Professor, Dept. of Integrative Biology 1001 Valley Life Sciences Building, # 2465 Berkeley, CA 94720-2465 bmishler@berkeley.edu The Mishler Lab

Curriculum Vitae

Brent Mishler is Director of the Jepson Herbarium and the University Herbarium at UC Berkeley, as well as a professor in the Department of Integrative Biology, where he teaches systematics and plant diversity. A native southern Californian, he attended Bonita High School in La Verne, California and worked for Los Angeles County as a ranger-naturalist at San Dimas Canyon County Park, where he became interested in natural history and especially botany. He attended California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, where he received his B.S. degree in Biology in 1975 and his M.S. in biology in 1978. He then received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1984, and was on the faculty at Duke University in Durham, NC for nine years before moving to UC Berkeley in 1993.

He divides his time between his family, teaching, administration of the Herbaria, and research on the systematics, evolution, and ecology of bryophytes. His large and active lab applies methods ranging from microscopy and computer-assisted morphometrics, through tissue culture and DNA sequencing. From the beginning of his career, he has maintained a special interest in the bryophyte flora of California.

Research Interests:

My research interests can be grouped into two main areas: empirical studies of ecology, phylogeny, systematics, and development of mosses, and the theoretical basis of systematic and evolutionary biology. Empirical studies include: (1) the phylogenetic relationships of the major groups of bryophytes (including mosses) and other land plants, using morphological, developmental, and ultrastructural characters as well as chloroplast DNA sequence data; (2) the development of moss peristomes in relation to evolution of the group; and (3) biosystematic studies of the haplolepideous mosses, including the tropical family Calymperaceae and the diverse temperate genus Tortula (Syntrichia), which involve transplant and ecological studies in the field, comparative physiological measurements and culture experiments in the lab, and morphological studies in the herbarium; (4) the reproductive biology of bryophytes, especially dryland mosses; and (5) the bryophyte flora of California and of Moorea (in the Society Islands of the South Pacific). Theoretical studies include investigations of the nature of species and speciation, methods for phylogenetic reconstruction (with an emphasis on cladistic analysis of molecular data), and the relationship between development and evolution.

Selected Publications (see long CV for full list):

C. La Farge, B.D. Mishler, J. Wheeler, D. Wall, K. Johannes, S. Schaffer, and J. Shaw. 2000. Phylogenetic relationships within the haplolepideous mosses. The Bryologist 103: 257-276.

M.A. Bowker, L. R. Stark, D.N. McLetchie, and B.D. Mishler. 2000. Sex expression, skewed sex ratios, and microhabitat distribution in the dioecious desert moss Syntrichia caninervis (Pottiaceae). American Journal of Botany 87: 517-526.

E. De Luna, A.E. Newton, A. Withey, D. Gonzalez, and B.D. Mishler. 1999. The transition to pleurocarpy: a phylogenetic analysis of the main Diplolepideous lineages based on rbcL sequences and morphology. The Bryologist 102: 634-650.

B. Goffinet, J. Shaw, L.E. Anderson, and B.D. Mishler. 1999. Peristome development in mosses in relation to systematics and evolution. V. Diplolepideae: Orthotrichaceae. The Bryologist 102: 581-594.

B.D. Mishler. 1999. Getting rid of species? In R. Wilson (ed.), Species: New Interdisciplinary Essays, pp.307-315. MIT Press.

L. R. Stark, B.D. Mishler, and D.N. McLetchie. 1998. Sex expression and growth rates in natural populations of the desert soil crustal moss Syntrichia caninervis. Journal of Arid Environments 40: 401-416.

L.A. Lewis, B.D. Mishler, and R. Vilgalys. 1997. Phylogenetic relationships of the liverworts (Hepaticae), a basal embryophyte lineage, inferred from nucleotide sequence data of the chloroplast gene rbcL. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 7: 377-393.

B. D. Mishler, V. A. Albert, M. W. Chase, P. O. Karis, and K. Bremer. 1996. Character-state weighting for DNA restriction site data: asymmetry, ancestors, and the Asteraceae. Cladistics 12: 11-19.