Project summary

Whole genome duplication (polyploidization) is a key diversity-shaping force in plants but we still know little about its ecological and genomic consequences in natural populations. Cardamine amara is a predominantly European species encompassing multiple diploid and tetraploid lineages with different distribution, ecology and morphology representing excellent model of incipient speciation. Its closest relatives from the C. amara group, also in focus of the project, occur in Mediterranean, Anatolia, Caucasus and the Far East Asia. The following questions will be addressed in the PhD project, using the combination of the high-throughput sequencing (HybSeq, RADseq and whole genome resequencing), cytometry, GISH, chromosome painting, ecological niche and morphometric analyses: What was the role of (parallel) ecological adaptation in diversification of the taxa of the C. amara group? Is hybridisation among the taxa of the C. amara group linked with polyploidization, leading to formation of novel allopolyploid lineages? What is the strength of realized gene flow between diploid and tetraploid populations within the species? Had the genome of C. amara contributed to the formation of the Mediterranean and Eastern Asian C. amara group polyploids? What is the structural stability of parental subgenomes in selected allopolyploids as revealed by GISH/comparative chromosome painting?

Five relevant publications of the research group

Monnahan P*, Kolář F*, Baduel P*, Sailer C, Koch J, Horvath R, Laenen B, Schmickl R, Paajanen P, Šrámková G, Bohutínská M, Arnold B, Weismann C, Marhold K, Slotte T, Bomblies K, Yant L: Pervasive population genomic consequences of genome duplication in Arabidopsis arenosa. BiorXiv preprint.

Šlenker M, Zozomová-Lihová J, Mandáková T, Kudoh H, Zhao Y, Soejima A, Yahara T, Skokanová K, Španiel S, Marhold K, 2018: Morphology and genome size of the widespread weed Cardamine occulta: how it differs from cleistogamic C. kokaiensis and other closely related taxa in Europe and Asia. – Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 187: 456–482. https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/botlinnean/boy030

Šrámková-Fuxová G, Záveská E, Kolář F, Lučanová M, Španiel S, Marhold K, 2017: Range-wide genetic structure of Arabidopsis halleri (Brassicaceae): glacial persistence in multiple refugia and origin of the Northern Hemisphere disjunction. – Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 185: 321–342. https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/botlinnean/box064

Kolář F, Fuxová G, Záveská E, Nagano AJ, Hyklová L, Lučanová M, Kudoh H, Marhold K, 2016: Northern glacial refugia and altitudinal niche divergence shape genome-wide differentiation in the emerging plant model Arabidopsis arenosa. – Molecular Ecology 25: 3929–3949. https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/mec.13721

Novikova PYu, Hohmann N, Nizhynska V, Tsuchimatsu T, Ali J, Muir G, Guggisberg A, Paape T, Schmid K, Fedorenko OM, Holm S, Säll T, Schlötterer Ch, Marhold K, Widmer A, Sese J, Shimizu KK, Weigel D, Krämer U, Koch MA, Nordborg M, 2016: Sequencing of the genus Arabidopsis identifies a complex history of nonbifurcating speciation and abundant trans-specific polymorphism. – Nature Genetics 48: 1077–1082. https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ng.3617

Current research grants of the group

How hybridisation and allopolyploidisation affect the diversity in three Brassicaceae tribes (GAČR – Czech Science Foundation; 2019-2021)

Source of financial support of the project
(min. 5000 CZK per month)

GAČR – Czech Science Foundation grant