Meng Lu

Postdoctoral Research Associate, Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity

meng.lu@york.ac.uk

Biography

I am a Postdoctoral Research Associate with LCAB and the Department of Biology, focusing on plant evolution using genetic/genomic data.

I completed my PhD at the University of Edinburgh and RBGE (2025), where I studied natural hybridisation in a comparative context and evaluated gene flow to understand species boundaries. Prior to my PhD, I worked on phylogenetic relationships in verbena (BSc, Sichuan University and the University of Washington, 2018) and trait-associated diversification in succulents (MRes, Imperial College London and Kew, 2019).

The interdisciplinary community at LCAB helps me appreciate the evolutionary impacts from both natural and social science perspectives.

Research

My current research project at LCAB focuses on the evolutionary consequences of human-induced hybridisation, using the British flora as the study system. 

In the UK, there are over 100 wild hybrids produced by spontaneous hybridisation between native and alien plants. However, there is no comparative study to quantitatively assess the evolutionary outcomes of hybridisation between native and alien plants. Would hybridisation homogenise the unique genetic features among species and lead to local extinction for some rare plants? Would hybridisation transfer beneficial loci among species and facilitate with local adaptative? Our study aims to address these questions using whole genome data and reveal the general outcomes of native-alien hybridisation for the UK flowering plants.

This project collaborates with the Darwin Tree of Life project (Wellcome Sanger Institute), as well as researchers at the University of Edinburgh, RBGE, and BSBI.

Publication highlights

Zuntini, A. R., Carruthers, T., Maurin, O., Bailey, P. C., Leempoel, K., Brewer, G. E., ... Lu, M. … & Knapp, S., 2024. Phylogenomics and the rise of the angiosperms. Nature, pp. 1-8.

Lu, M., Fradera‐Soler, M., Forest, F., Barraclough, T.G. and Grace, O.M., 2022. Evidence linking life‐form to a major shift in diversification rate in Crassula. American journal of botany, 109(2), pp.272-290.

Lu, M., Frost, L.A., O’Leary, N. and Olmstead, R.G., 2019. Phylogenetic relationships of the tribe Neospartoneae (Verbenaceae) based on molecular data. Darwiniana, nueva serie, 7(2), pp.305-324.

Funder

Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)