A Comparative Invesitgation of Hybrid Speciation in Wild Sunflowers

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Rieseberg 9806290 One of the most exciting recent advances in biology has been the ability to generate detailed genetic maps for almost any plant or animal species. These maps not only are essential for isolating genes of interest, but they also can be used to study important questions in population biology such as how new species are formed. The purpose of this grant is to develop genetic linkage maps for three wild sunflower species that are products of hybridization between two other sunflower species. By comparing the genetic maps of the hybrid species and their parents, it will be possible to determine exactly what genetic changes are necessary for hybrid speciation to occur and to estimate how rapidly this process might take place. The primary outcome of this work will be a more predictive theory of hybrid speciation. However, the genetic maps generated by this research are likely to be useful to researchers in a variety of fields ranging from ecology to agriculture. This is because the wild sunflowers to be investigated are characterized by adaptations such as drought and saline tolerance that are of interest to both ecologists and plant breeders. The maps generated by this proposal can be used to elucidate the genomic location and genetic basis of these adaptations and to facilitate their transfer to the cultivated sunflower. In addition, novel analytical methods developed to analyze the sunflower mapping data should be broadly applicable to any data set that involves genetic linkage analyses.