When in doubt, leave it out" - the genetic architecture of local adaptation across different levels of ploidy

Rapid adaptation to novel environments is enhanced by the availability of sufficient genetic variation, and one common source for novel genetic variation in plants is chromosome doubling or polyploidy.

Polyploid species often display shifts in the distribution range compared to parental species and often expand on the distribution ranges occupied by the parental species by colonising and adapting to new habitats, a so-called transgressive distribution.

Despite the importance of polyploidy in plants, studies of the genetic architecture of locally adaptive traits are scarce in polyploids. Even more rare are comparative studies across closely related species that vary in ploidy levels.

This project aims to provide insights into how polyploidy has driven range expansions and facilitated local adaptation in closely related species from the genus Phleum that differ in ploidy and geographic distributions.

This will be achieved by employing a combination of comparative and population genomics methods combined with field experiments to assess within and between-species differences in the genetic architecture of adaptive traits.

We will also assess how local adaptation is mediated by changes in gene expression and how coexpression networks are altered by increasing genome complexity.