Environmental association analysis in closely related Brassicaceae species

Arabis alpina - one of the investigated species. Foto: Jolanda Zimmermann, WSL

Strong environmental factors invoke global adaptation of populations, expected to shape species‘ ecological niches in a similar way. Accordingly, one may assume that adaptation also affects the genomes of species in a parallel way, so that adaptive markers should be transferable among related taxa. In other words, the same genes or genomic regions are presumably involved in adaptation to the same environmental force across species. To test this, several closely related species need to be studied under the same phylogeographic circumstances. The present study aims at testing for genomic stability of adaptation in five closely related plant species. The five Brassicaceae species Arabis alpina, A. jacquinii, Cardamine resedifolia, Draba aizoides and Thlaspi rotundifolia were chosen in view of their wide ecological amplitude and range/abundance. The outcome is of ecological and evolutionary relevance, shedding light on genomic processes related to adaptation and, thus, ecological niche evolution.

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• Felix Gugerli Künzle