Dissertation Research: Phenological interactions in Arabidopsis thaliana--natural variation and natural selection

植物主要通过改变它们的季节性生命阶段转变来适应气候变化，例如发芽的时间和开花的时间。因此，植物对环境变化的反应的一个主要问题是这些反应的遗传基础和适应意义。对于一年生植物物种，发芽和开花的时间特别重要，因为它们在环境和遗传上相互影响。然而，人们对它们对季节性环境的反应，特别是发芽时间的自然变异的基因知之甚少。本研究结合了测量的自然选择领域和分子遗传分析，以测试假设的自然变化的生命周期响应季节性条件下的一年生植物拟南芥的遗传基础，并研究不同的基因如何相互作用，以确定其整体健身。该项目研究了随着扩散和气候变化而变化的季节因素的基本遗传变异机制。 因此，这项工作具有相关性，预测引进的杂草物种分散在广泛的地理范围内的动态，以及预测他们对环境变化的反应。该项目还促进了与德国和西班牙科学家正在进行的国际合作。

Plants adapt to changing climate primarily by altering their seasonal life phase transitions, such as the timing of germination and the timing of flowering. Thus, a major question regarding plant responses to environmental change concerns the genetic basis and adaptive significance of these responses. For annual plant species, the timing of germination and flowering are especially important because they influence each other both environmentally and genetically. Very little is known, however, about the genes that underlie natural variation in their response to seasonal environments, especially for germination timing. This research combines the measurement of natural selection in the field and molecular-genetic analysis to test hypotheses about the genetic basis of natural variation in life cycle responses to seasonal conditions in the annual plant Arabadopsis thaliana, and to examine how different genes interact to determine its overall fitness. The project investigates fundamental genetic mechanisms of variation as a function of seasonal factors that vary with dispersal and climate change. The work therefore has relevance to predicting dynamics of introduced weedy species dispersed over a broad geographic range, as well as predicting their responses to environmental change. The project also contributes to an ongoing international collaboration with scientists in Germany and Spain.