One reason is that flowers have been shaped over evolutionary time by selective pressures imposed through plant-pollinator interactions.  However, in order for different floral forms to evolve, changes must occur in the underlying genetic programs that specify flower developmental patterning.  In the Hileman lab we study how these flower developmental programs have evolved, through changes in gene number, gene expression and protein function, to pattern differences in flower form between species.  This field of research is called developmental evolution or “evo-devo”.  To address questions of flower developmental evolution, we take a number of diverse approaches including phylogenetic studies, molecular developmental genetic approaches, and studies of molecular evolution.