T H E M A I N L I N E S
Mechanisms of speciation in plants associated to mating system transitions
(TransSpeciation)
The speciation process triggers the emergence of new species and its study helps not only with understanding evolutionary questions but also with a better management of the natural biodiversity. The causes and consequences of speciation have drawn the attention of scientists from the beginnings of the evolutionary biology. However, while the ecological mechanisms and consequences of speciation were extensively explored in many organisms during decades, it was not until recent years, with the vertiginous development and increasing affordability of new sequencing technologies, when integrated approximations to the study of speciation, including its genomic aspects, have become increasingly feasible. The causes of speciation lie in a continuous interaction between ecological and genetic mechanisms. The importance of natural selection for creating barriers to gene flow between diverging taxa (ecological speciation) has been recognised. However, there are only few examples in which the identification of the selective pressures and reproductive barriers driving speciation were accompanied by the identification of genes underlying the speciation process. One of this consequences is the evolutionary transitions between diferent mating systems strategies in plants. In this project, we study a close related group of taxa included the incanum complex of species belonging to the genus Erysimum L. Although the species in the complex share many phenotypic and habit similarities, they strongly differ in floral sizes and pollinator assemblages. A multidisciplinary approach including the evaluation of the reproductive barriers and the study of the selective pressures driving them, together with the identification of the genetic mechanisms underlying these species divergence conform the main objectives of this project, together with the study of the evolutionary consequences of these speciation events.
Hybridization as driver of biodiversity changes in the global change era: an experimental and predictive perspective of the phenomenon
(globalHybrids)
The species hybridization is a phenomenon which consequences can go from the collapse and loss of diversity because of genetic introgression events, to the rise of this diversity because of hybrid speciation. The anthropic effects, including the global change, are promoting the secondary contact and hybridization between diverging taxa, especially in protected areas. That happens because different species (plants in particular) have not completed the
development of reproductive barriers because of evolutionary divergence, and they are getting together because of changes in their altitudinal distribution. Understanding and predicting the consequences of these hybridization events seems crucial for any future conservation strategy and biodiversity management policy, more particularly in those areas with special conservation interest. In the current project we aim to study the ecological and genetic mechanisms promoting or preventing the past, present and future hybridization. For this, we think that an appropriated system are the different contact zones between Erysimum species (Brassicacea) in more than a half of the Spanish National Parks. Using this framework, we will genetic and ecologically characterize the different contact zones of these species of Erysimum. We will quantify the reproductive barriers between the contacting species and their hybrids. We also will explore the positive and negative dense-dependence processes using an experimental approach. And we will value how these processes are affected by the future global change predictions. Finally, we aim to use all that information to implement it in a predictive model which could be used in other systems with potential hybridization because of the global change, influencing on the biodiversity patterns of protected areas, identifying priorities for conservations policies.
development of reproductive barriers because of evolutionary divergence, and they are getting together because of changes in their altitudinal distribution. Understanding and predicting the consequences of these hybridization events seems crucial for any future conservation strategy and biodiversity management policy, more particularly in those areas with special conservation interest. In the current project we aim to study the ecological and genetic mechanisms promoting or preventing the past, present and future hybridization. For this, we think that an appropriated system are the different contact zones between Erysimum species (Brassicacea) in more than a half of the Spanish National Parks. Using this framework, we will genetic and ecologically characterize the different contact zones of these species of Erysimum. We will quantify the reproductive barriers between the contacting species and their hybrids. We also will explore the positive and negative dense-dependence processes using an experimental approach. And we will value how these processes are affected by the future global change predictions. Finally, we aim to use all that information to implement it in a predictive model which could be used in other systems with potential hybridization because of the global change, influencing on the biodiversity patterns of protected areas, identifying priorities for conservations policies.
