Biography
She received her Ph.D. in botany from the University of Florida and her master of science and bachelor of science degrees in biology from Seoul National University.
Yoo's research interests are in polyploid evolution, focusing on the well-known systems, cotton, Brassica, and Tragopogon; the impact of polyploidy on crop domestication and plant speciation; stress-response in plant systems using various omics tools; integrated study of transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics; and phylogenomics and evolution of flowering plants.
She has published in Genetics, The Plant Journal, PLoS Genetics, New Phytologist, and Journal of Proteomics, among other publications, and presented at many meetings.
Yoo is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Botanical Society of America, the American Society of Plant Taxonomists and the Korean Society of Plant Taxonomists.
She previously served as an adjunct lecturer and postdoctoral research associate at the University of Florida, and a postdoctoral research associate at Iowa State University.
Education Background
Botany Ph.D - 2008 University of Florida
Biology MS - 2000 Seoul National University
Biology BS - 1998 Seoul National University
Courses Taught
- BY214 - Genetics
- BY226 - Plant Biotechnology
- BY412/512 - Molecular Biology Laboratory
Research Interests
My research has encompassed diverse areas of biology, including molecular evolution, phylogenetics, evolutionary developmental biology, evolutionary genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, physiology, and genetics. The primary focus of my research is on how plants adapted to their environment and how evolutionary processes, such as polyploidy, hybridization and domestication, contributed phenotypic modification and diversification of higher plants. I try to address the following questions using comparative and integrative approaches with omics technologies: 1) how human selection has shaped the evolution of spinnable cotton fibers?, 2) how polyploidy or whole genome duplication triggered the diversification of flowering plants, focusing on two model systems, cotton and Tragopogon?, 3) how polyploids better cope with environmental stresses than their diploid parents using Brassica polyploid system?, 4) how plants modulate their metabolomic profiles when they are introduced into other places?, and 5) what evolutionary and molecular processes have shaped the plant diversity and trait evolution in flowering plant lineages?. The improved understanding of plant genome evolution and plant adaptation to the environment may provide effective biotechnology targets and strategies for the improvement of crop species.