FIBR - Molecular Evolutionary Ecology of Developmental Signaling Pathways in Complex Environments.

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This research project will investigate how plants in natural environments integrate multiple environmental cues in order to flower during favorable seasonal conditions. To this end, it will dissect natural genetic variation in the model plant species Arabidopsis thaliana, combining tools from molecular biology, molecular evolutionary genetics, quantitative genetics, evolutionary ecology, gene network modeling, and biogeography. Major objectives are: 1) to identify natural genetic variants in environmental signal integration; 2) to dissect molecular mechanisms of signal integration; 3) to uncover the evolutionary forces shaping signaling pathways by analyzing DNA sequence variation in candidate genes; 4) to test whether natural variation in these candidate genes contributes to variation in response to multiple environmental cues; 5) to map quantitative trait loci (QTL) contributing to natural variation in flowering responses on a fine genetic scale; 6) to examine the effects of different combinations of natural allelic variants of candidate genes on flowering responses; 7) to model the effects of natural variation in candidate flowering genes on overall flowering pathway function; 8) to test for evidence of local adaptation to climate by examining geographic associations between flowering responses, candidate gene variation, and climate in the site of origin; 9) to measure geographic variation in natural selection by growing lines from different parts of Europe in replicated field experiments across the native European climatic range. Broader impacts: The results of this project will be important for predicting how plants will respond to ongoing climate change. The broad research scope will provide interdisciplinary training to postdoctoral, predoctoral, and undergraduate students as well as K-12 educators. International training collaborations with 7 leading European laboratories will provide unique opportunities for students and postdocs to learn Arabidopsis molecular and population genetics. Thus, future researchers and educators will learn to transcend disciplinary boundaries and integrate molecular and evolutionary approaches to biological problems.