Protist evolution at the dry limit (B03)

• Subject Area: Ecology and Biodiversity of Animals and Ecosystems, Organismic Interactions
• Term: from 2016 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 268236062

Unicellular eukaryotes are ideal model organisms to combine studies on evolutionary processes connected with the evolution of very different groups of organisms and across very different time scales comprising even geological time scales. Using state of the art molecular and bioinformatic tools, as well as modern cultivation and isolation techniques, we aim to explore evolutionary and co-evolutionary processes of populations and species in extremely arid environments. First, we want to compare patterns of population genetic diversity of symbiotic protists associated to the gut of endemic insect populations, which are genetically separated to varying degrees, with those of their host populations (project B02). Second, we aim to analyze protist populations associated to the specific microbiome (B04) and the root and soil systems of endemic desert plants (B01, B05) and highly fragmented salar biotopes.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 1211: Earth - Evolution at the Dry Limit
• Applicant Institution: Universität zu Köln
• Project Heads: Professor Dr. Hartmut Arndt; Professor Dr. Thomas Wiehe