Population Genomics

开花植物大约在1.5亿年前进化而来，并随后多样化，适应了惊人的环境、栖息地和生长形式的多样性。考虑到植物适应的生态和社会重要性，了解影响植物适应的因素不仅对进化过程的基本理解具有重要意义，而且对解决与社会相关的重大问题也具有重要意义，例如有利于抗除草剂杂草快速传播的因素，以及植物适应快速气候变化的能力。赖特教授的研究计划集中在使用种群基因组学的最新方法，以获得对促进和限制植物适应的因素的重要见解。这项工作将涉及若干关键领域。首先，他将使用Rumex属（码头和sorles），研究促进性染色体形成和Y染色体退化的进化因素。在这个群体中，不同的性别最近已经独立进化了多次，这为理解中性、不适应和适应过程在性染色体形成和分化中的作用提供了一个绝佳的机会。通过研究重组率、表观遗传学、基因组结构和染色体重排的进化，结合正选择测试，本研究将获得关于性染色体进化的方式和原因以及它们在物种间差异的重要新见解。其次，他将以常见的农业杂草水麻为模型，研究复杂除草剂抗性机制的基因组基础和适应动力学，以更好地了解抗性在整个景观中传播的进化起源和本质。这项工作将使人们对有利于快速适应的因素有重要的新见解，并为农业杂草的管理提供重要的见解，这些杂草给农业带来了重大的经济成本。

Flowering plants evolved approximately 150 million years ago, and have subsequently diversified and adapted to an astonishing diversity of environments, habitats and growth forms. Given their ecological and societal importance, understanding the factors affecting plant adaptation are of major interest not only for the basic understanding of evolutionary processes, but also for tackling major questions of societal relevance, such as the factors favouring the rapid spread of herbicide-resistant weeds, and the ability of plants to adapt to rapid climate change. Professor Wright's research plans are focused on using the latest approaches in population genomics to gain important insights into the factors that facilitate and constrain plant adaptation. This work will tackle a number of key areas. First, using the genus Rumex (docks and sorrels), he will investigate the evolutionary factors contributing to the formation of sex chromosomes and the degeneration of Y chromosomes. Separate sexes have evolved recently and multiple times independently in this group, providing an outstanding opportunity to understand the role of neutral, maladaptive and adaptive processes in sex chromosome formation and divergence. By examining the evolution of recombination rates, epigenetics, genome structure and chromosome rearrangements integrated with tests of positive selection, this research should gain major new insights into how and why sex chromosomes evolve and why they vary across species. Second, using the agricultural weed common waterhemp as a model, he will investigate the genomic basis and adaptive dynamics of complex herbicide resistance mechanisms, to better understand the evolutionary origins and nature of spread of resistance across the landscape. This work will enable important new insights into the factors favouring rapid adaptation, as well as provide important insights into the management of agricultural weeds, which impose major economic costs on the agricultural industry.