GEN ECOL ADAPT: Adaptation genomics of trophic polymorphism
Elmer
Identifying the determinants of species diversification is one of science’s most pressing questions. Biodiversity research has direct implications for our understanding of the origins of species, unequal species richness and the origins of phenotypic and evolutionary novelty. Critical elements in understanding the evolution of biodiversity are the environmental and genetic factors that influence adaptation. Similarly, we need to understand these ecosystem components in order to mitigate biodiversity loss under rapid environmental change.
This research project seeks to address two inter-connected objectives in the genomics of adaptation: 1) to determine differential gene expression associated with rapidly evolving and phenotypically plastic trophic polymorphisms; 2) to quantify genetic variation and its response to selection in the divergence between trophically polymorphic species, and then to identify its arrangement in the genome. The study organisms are polymorphic species of salmonid fishes native to Europe.