Abstract Detail

Exploring the utility and limits of target enrichment methods to study polyploidy and reticulate evolution

Strategies for assessing phylogenomic conflict and testing hybridization, with an example from Heuchera.

In the era of phylogenomics, investigators have repeatedly uncovered unexpectedly high levels of gene tree discord and new cryptic examples of hybridization; it is now widely acknowledged that natural hybridization is common across taxa. Such a flurry of empirical reports in recent years is motivating intense interest in practical strategies for sorting through complex evolutionary signals, a need complemented by a correspondingly rapid growth in methods for assessing hybridization. Yet methods differ greatly in the scale of data they can handle and the types of hypotheses they can test.
Here, I present a brief overview of the many approaches proposed in recent years for examining hybridization, exemplifying them with the genus Heuchera, still among the most prolific examples of hybridization in flowering plants. The genus is unique for displaying putative cases of most hybrid types – introgressants, stable homoploid hybrids, and at least one candidate allopolyploid. I focus on strategies for target capture and other reduced-representation strategies from exploration to hypothesis testing, and feasibility of available methods on a dataset of realistic size and complexity.

1 - Mississippi State University, 295 E. Lee Blvd., P.O. Box GY, 295 E. Lee Blvd., P.O. Box GY, Mississippi State, MS, 39762, United States

Keywords:
hybridization
methods
phylogenomics
chloroplast capture.

Presentation Type: Colloquium Presentations
Session: COL04, Exploring the utility and limits of target enrichment methods to study polyploidy and reticulate evolution
Location: Virtual/Virtual
Date: Tuesday, July 28th, 2020
Time: 12:30 PM
Number: COL04010
Abstract ID:747
Candidate for Awards:None