Genomic and Ecological Bases of Gene flow in Grassland Arabis Species

This project will be supervised by Juliette de Meaux at the University of Cologne.

Abstract:

Gene flow between ecologically different species may well help endangered species survive the challenges imposed by climate and environmental change. The two endangered species, Arabis nemorensis and Arabis sagittata, which have been completely isolated for about 10 000 years, have evolved distinct ecologies. A. nemorensis is adapted to the episodic flooding of floodplain meadows and A. sagittata has a preference for dry calcareous areas. The two species have hybridized in the past, and they hybridize again today in a unique site located on the banks of the Rhine. The area of A. sagittata’s distribution extends considerably more towards the south than does that of A. nemorensis. Indeed, A. sagittata is also found in the drier calcareous soils south of the Alps as well as in the southern part of France. How and why A. sagittata can hybridize with A. nemorensis remains a mystery. The goal of this project is to understand the genetic of hybridization and its ecological consequences in a pair of closely related yet ecologically distinct species.

Group homepage: https://ag-demeaux.botanik.uni-koeln.de/

Key Publication: Dittberner H, Tellier A, de Meaux J (2022). Approximate Bayesian computation untangles signatures of contemporary and historical hybridization between two Arabis floodplain species. Molecular Biology and Evolution, msac015, https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msac015