I would like to thank the members of my committee for their guidance and input on my research. In particular, thanks to Dr. Arturo Gómez-Pompa for his complete support of my project and for introducing me to Mexico. Thanks to Dr. Richard Whitkus for help in planning the RAPD study, for the use of his laboratory, and for teaching me the techniques I needed to complete the work.

I also would like to thank Marco Lazcano Barrero and El Eden Ecological Reserve for providing a fantastic facility for tropical research. For their help in collecting samples in Mexico, my thanks go to Luz Maria Ortega, Juan Jiminez Orsonio, and Patricia Montañez. For helping me with my work at El Eden Ecological Reserve, thanks to Paulino Echeverría Chimal and Abundio Canto.

For their help with my project and life in general thanks to my labmates in the Gómez-Pompa lab and my friends in the Department of Botany and Plant Sciences.

And of course, thanks to my parents, Bruce and Carol, and my sister Chandra for their unconditional love and support through it all.