SPP 1529:  Evolutionary Plant Solutions to Ecological Challenges: Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Adaptive Traits in the Brassicaceae s.l. (Adaptomics)

• Subject Area: Biology
• Term: from 2011 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 172417568

In times of rapid global environmental change, the improvement of our understanding of evolutionary processes is particularly important. The central scientific objective of this Priority Programme is to obtain fundamentally novel, comprehensive and increasingly predictive insights into the molecular solutions that evolution brings about, which result in plants matching local environmental demands. This goal requires the elucidation of the genetic basis underlying adaptive traits, and the integration of disciplines, such as ecology, plant physiology, systematics, biochemistry, molecular biology and population genetics, that traditionally work in isolation.
By concentrating on the Brassicaceae family that exhibits remarkable ecological diversity, this Priority Programme takes advantage of progress in the molecular understanding of the Brassicaceae model plant Arabidopsis thaliana and capitalises on recent seminal advances in sequencing technology and bioinformatics. We propose to (1) analyse and classify natural diversity in the Brassicaceae, (2) apply the highest standards in molecular genetics to dissect the molecular basis of diversified traits, (3) test their evolutionary relevance and (4) develop the infrastructure to maximise common benefits from genetic, genomic, ecological and systematics tools.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• International Connection: Austria, France, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, USA

Projects

• Adaptation and speciation: The acquisition of new traits and adaptive potential via introgression. An Arabidopsis lyrata - arenosa introgression zone as example. (Applicants Koch, Marcus ;  Widmer, Alex )
• Adaptation to selfing in the genus Capsella: Inferring the evolutionary history and adaptive value of selfing-syndrome alleles (Applicant Lenhard, Michael )
• Adaptomics of neofunctionalization: analysis of GORDITA-like genes in Brassicaceae (Applicants Becker, Annette ;  Mummenhoff, Klaus ;  Theißen, Günter )
• Adaptomics: The Evolution of C4 Photosynthesis in the Brassicales (Applicants Weber, Andreas P.M. ;  Westhoff, Peter )
• Cis-regulatory diversity and adaptive divergence in the Arabidopsis genus (Applicant de Meaux, Juliette )
• Comparative transposable element silencing and chromatin analysis of Arabidopsis lyrata and Arabidopsis thaliana (Applicant Pecinka, Ales )
• Coordination Funds (Applicant Krämer, Ute )
• Evolutionary plant solutions to ecological challenges: Molecular mechanisms underlying adaptive traits in the Brassicaceae s.l. (Applicant Krämer, Ute )
• Molecular-genetic analysis of trade-offs between vegetative growth and flowering in natural populations of perennial Arabis alpina (Applicant Coupland, Ph.D., George )
• Mutation accumulation in sexual and asexual genomic regions in apomictic Boechera (Brassicaceae) (Applicant Blattner, Frank R. )
• Natural variation, underlying molecular basis and ecological role of metal hyperaccumulation in Arabidopsis halleri (Applicants Clemens, Stephan ;  Krämer, Ute ;  Müller, Caroline )
• Phenotypic and genetic variation in Biscutella didyma and other Brassicaceae and adaptation to environmental change - a combined ecological-genomic approach (Applicants Schlötterer, Christian ;  Tielbörger, Katja ;  Weigel, Ph.D., Detlef )
• Starting from scratch: adaptation to variable environments after an extreme bottleneck (Applicants Neuffer, Barbara ;  Nordborg, Magnus ;  Weigel, Ph.D., Detlef )
• The evolutionary history of Cochlearia (Brassicaceae) in Central Europe: Population and phylogenomics of a cold relic in a warming world (Applicant Koch, Marcus )
• The genetic basis for leaf shape diversity: exploiting the Arabidopsis relative Cardamine hirsuta (Applicants Hay, Angela ;  Tsiantis, Miltos )
• The interaction of genetic drift and adaptive evolution in two endemic plant species, Arabidopsis pedemontana and A. cebennensis (Applicant Schmid, Karl )
• The role of biotic interactions in determining phenotypic and genotypic variation in metal hyperaccumulation and hypertolerance in two model Brassicaceae species (Applicant Tielbörger, Katja )
• The role of seed dormancy and longevity in the annual and perennial life cycles (Applicants Albani, Maria ;  Soppe, Wim )
• Tools and biological resources to study characters and traits in the Brassicaceae (Applicant Koch, Marcus )
• Understanding flooding tolerance mechanisms using a tolerant dicot model system (Applicant Mustroph, Angelika )

• Spokesperson: Professorin Dr. Ute Krämer