The J. Taylor Lab studies the pattern and process of fungal evolution. They started by studying the pattern of evolution in terms of species and populations and now have begun to study the process. Their long term goal is to make fungi the best models for evolutionary biology. They focus on the key evolutionary event that forms the tree of life: speciation. Recently they have documented species divergences, compared phylogenetic and biological methods of species recognition, addressed the timing of species divergence, and evaluated selection acting on potentially adaptive genes. Now, they are using genetics and genomics to find genes that maintain species and facilitate adaptation