Abstract Detail

Phylogenomics

Sex determination, speciation, and reproductive incompatibility in Amaranthus.

Plant species are often capable of forming viable hybrids even after millions of years of divergence. The flowering plant genus Amaranthus includes approximately 70 species, of which nearly all are interfertile to various degrees. This is particularly relevant since several species are of economic importance, including both cultivated cereal crops and a number of major herbicide-resistant agricultural weeds. The potential for these species to interbreed introduces major agricultural challenges. An improved understanding of the fertility of interspecies crosses, and the genomic basis underlying their nascent incompatibilities, could provide crucial tools for future plant breeding and management. Here I propose to perform a Genome Wide Association Study (GWAS) to map sex-determination loci in Amaranthus, which have evolved multiple times and may play an important role in hybrid incompatibility. In addition, I will perform crosses between species from all major clades of Amaranthus to calculate hybrid viability using a uniform method by measuring the viability of F1 pollen grains. This research will investigate the role of sex-determination loci in affecting reproductive incompatibility between species, and help to understand hybridization in plants from the scale of genes to morphology and phylogeny.

1 - Columbia University, Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology, 1190 Amsterdam Ave, New York, NY, 10027, USA

Keywords:
phylogenomics.

Presentation Type: Poster
Session: P, Phylogenomics Posters
Location: Virtual/Virtual
Date: Wednesday, July 29th, 2020
Time: 5:00 PM Time and date to be determined
Number: PPL001
Abstract ID:228
Candidate for Awards:None