Project Details
Projekt
Adaptation and speciation: The acquisition of new traits and adaptive potential via introgression. An Arabidopsis lyrata - arenosa introgression zone as example.
Applicants
Professor Dr. Marcus Koch; Professor Dr. Alex Widmer
Subject Area
Plant Physiology
Term
from 2011 to 2016
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 197752905
We here propose to analyze the genetic basis of edaphic adaptation in outcrossing Arabidopsis species and to study a natural hybridization and introgression zone of these species in the north-eastern Limestone Forealps. We have previously characterized introgression from Arabidopsis arenosa (with a broad ecological niche regarding edaphic conditions) into limestone adapted Arabidopsis lyrata (with a very narrow ecological niche in mountainous regions). The introgressed populations were capable to escape from this narrow ecological niche and migrated into lowland areas dominated by siliceous bedrocks northward into the Danube river valley.Within the here proposed project, massive parallel DNA sequencing will be used to identify genomic regions associated with edaphic adaptation in diploid populations of both species. In tetraploid populations we will then analyze the genomic contribution of the Arabidopsis arenosa genome that has introgressed into A. lyrata and allowed the latter to adapt to the new substrate. Specifically, we will ask whether adaptive genes identified in diploid populations have preferentially introgressed in the tetraploid hybridization zone. In parallel, reciprocal cultivation experiments with material from different edaphically adapted populations will be conducted to assess the extent of local adaptation and to study at the transcriptome level genetic differences that have evolved on different substrate types.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
International Connection
Switzerland
