CLIMATE_ADAPTATION · Genetic adaptations to climate in Arabidopsis thaliana

A major goal of evolutionary biology is to understand the phenotypic and genetic bases of adaptation to the environment. Since plants have limited mobility, aspects of climate play an especially important role in their survival and reproductive success. Some of the earliest evidence for this comes from phenotypic clines with the environment . The proposed research will identify the specific genetic variants – including previously not assayed rare single nucleotide polymorphisms and structural variants – that underlie adaptations to the environment in the model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana. These results will then be used as a starting point to examine the broader context of adaptation in the Arabidopsis gene interaction network as well as the specific evolutionary histories of a few of the most compelling candidates. This research brings together scientists working at two different institutes for work at the intersection of Mathematics and the Life Sciences, and it combines recently collected and emerging data sets with cutting-edge computational methods. The results will clarify how quantitative traits evolve in response to climate, a necessary first step for accurately predicting responses to future climate change, and will inform research to produce sustainable crop varieties.