International Research Fellowship Program: Using Empirical Data to Test Population and Metapopulation Models for the Evolution of Mating Systems in the Annual Plant M. Annua

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0202645EppleyThe International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.This award will support a twenty-four month research fellowship by Dr. Sarah M. Eppley to work with Dr. John R. Pannell at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.Dr. Eppley and her host will test population and metapopulation models for the evolution of mating systems in Mercurialis annual. This annual plant is an excellent species for empirical studies designed to test theoretical models such as this because it is a short-lived annual that can be grown to sexual maturity within weeks. It also offers an exceptional opportunity to determine the relationship between various mating-system parameters and breeding systems. Ongoing research has established baseline information and techniques for this species, including development of molecular markers that lend themselves to the study of specific questions regarding mating-system evolution. This study is the first of its kind to compare the rates of gene flow between inbreeding and outbreeding populations in the context of combines versus separate sexes. The project will also provide information on the consequences for gene flow of contrasting sex allocation strategies in a wind-pollinated plant species.The University of Oxford's faculty has been actively investigating plant evolutionary processes, with cross-disciplinary interactions between plant ecologists, geneticists, physiologists, and molecular biologists. Dr. Pannell has been working with M. annua for seven years and is an authority on the genetics of plant mating systems and on the construction and interpretation of theoretical models exploring mating-system evolution.