THE SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH PROGRAM

    What are the genetics of Astrophytum and Lophophora?

            The Institute's president, Dr. Martin Terry (who holds the required DEA and Texas Department of Public Safety registrations to conduct research on peyote) worked with Drs. James Manhart and Alan Pepper on population genetics projects involving star cactus and peyote for 2-½ months during the summer of 2005 at Texas A&M University.
            The star cactus population genetics work is part of a multi-species project on endangered plants in South Texas that has been funded at Texas A&M by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
            Dr. Terry is one of the investigators on the grant.

          The peyote research was started previously by Terry at Texas A&M and, during the summer of 2006, some significant progress was made on the technical details of characterizing the genetic diversity of different peyote populations.

    More recent developments!

        An exciting field study occurred in 2007 that enabled the successful collection and purification of DNA samples from a number of the known Lophophora species in Mexico. Samplings were obtained from more than one population each of L. diffusa, L. fricii, L. koehresii & L. williamsii.
            How these samples are collected in the field.
            The results of the ongoing analysis is hoped to contribute to our actual understanding of how these plants are related to each other.

        Another exciting development occurred in 2012 with the publication of a new paper on Astrophytum asterias.




    Please enjoy our featured articles:


    A Tale of Two Cacti


    by Dana M. Price & Martin Terry


    Button, button, who's got the button?

    by Martin Terry


    Conservation of Lophophora in Mexico

    by Martin Terry
    Flora of the Dead Horse Mountains

    by Joselyn Fenstermacher





    Cactus Conservation Institute