EVOREP-Evolutionary Genomics of Plant Reproductive Isolation

生殖隔离机制是进化研究的中心课题，因为它们决定了种群之间基因交换的频率，并最终促成了新物种的起源。植物生殖隔离的遗传基础还知之甚少。我们建议通过研究控制生殖本身成败的遗传参数来研究生殖隔离的机制。我们假设，在生态和地理分离后，生殖过程的进化分歧导致繁殖成功和种群之间或密切相关物种之间的基因流动减少。因此，生殖分化是物种形成的重要一步。我们将集中在交配后，但在合子前和合子后立即起作用的成分，如控制配子体的形成和数量的基因，它们在受精前相互沟通，以及控制受精成功的因素。从对潜在的发育过程和进化基因组学的既定知识出发，我们将识别和研究控制生殖的候选基因的功能，询问进化是如何塑造基因产物及其相互作用的，并研究基因变异在不同生态和遗传背景下的适合度效应。我们在这里提出了一个欧洲合作和跨学科的建议，以系统和严格的方式，使用最先进的生态和进化功能基因组学工具，分析植物生殖障碍的遗传和分子基础。

Mechanisms of reproductive isolation are a central topic of evolutionary research because they determine the frequency of genetic exchange between populations and ultimately contribute to the origin of new species. The genetic basis of reproductive isolation in plants is poorly understood. We propose to study mechanisms of reproductive isolation by investigating the genetic parameters controlling success or failure of reproduction itself. We hypothesize that evolutionary divergence of reproductive processes after ecological and geographic separation leads to reduced reproductive success and gene flow between populations or closely related species. Therefore, reproductive divergence constitutes an important step in speciation. We will concentrate on components that act post-mating, but pre- and immediately post-zygotic, such as genes controlling the formation and number of gametophytes, their communication with each other preceding fertilization, and factors governing fertilization success. Starting from established knowledge about the underlying developmental processes and evolutionary genomics, we will identify and investigate the function of candidate genes controlling reproduction, ask how evolution has shaped gene products and their interplay, and study the fitness effects of gene variants in different ecological and genetic backgrounds. We here present a European collaborative and cross-disciplinary proposal to analyse the genetic and molecular basis of plant reproductive barriers in a systematic and rigorous fashion, using state-of-the-art tools of ecological and evolutionary functional genomics.