Das Projekt "Schutz und Management Aquatischer Genetischer Ressourcen: Kritische Checkliste deutscher Süßwasserfische" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Forschungsverbund Berlin, Leibniz-Institut für Gewässerökologie und Binnenfischerei durchgeführt. Aktuelle Ergebnisse phylogeographischer, systematischer und taxonomischer Studien werden unter den Gesichtspunkten der Konvention zur Biologischen Vielfalt diskutiert. Weiterhin wird eine aktuelle Checkliste der deutschen Süßwasserfische wird vorgestellt.
Das Projekt "Genetic diversity, ecotype differentiation and population biology of an endangered primeval-forest lichen, Lobardia pulmonaria in a suture zone in the Ural Mountains" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Eidgenössische Forschungsanstalt für Wald, Schnee und Landschaft durchgeführt. Lichen conservation biology is often faced with widely distributed, but strongly fragmented taxa. If in a global Red List assessment such a taxon is treated as one single unit, one large and stable population may result in a low conservation status of the global population, despite the fact that most populations face a strong decline. In case the global population of a taxon is subdivided into evolutionary significant units (ESU), an individual Red List status might be assigned to each ESU. However, the complex life cycles and long generation times make it very difficult to identify ESU for lichens if ecological differentiation is the crucial criterion for their distinction. As an alternative approach to delimit ESU, genetic differentiation of regional populations has been suggested. Recent developments of molecular markers demonstrated considerable levels of regional genetic differentiation among populations within species and during our first Scopes project we found high levels of genetic differentiation within L. pulmonaria between biogeographic regions in Russia. We identified a broad suture zone of two different evolutionary lineages in the Ural Mountains. The western lineage, as identified by ITS sequences is widely distributed in Africa and Western, Northern and Central Europe. The eastern lineage was found so far in Russia East of the Urals and in North America. Concerning the differentiation within the two ITS types it is likely that these genetically differentiated populations of L. pulmonaria developed independently over considerable evolutionary periods rather than became demographically autonomous through recent isolation, e.g. during anthropogenic deforestation. In this project we will sample additional populations along this suture zone, as well as east and west of it to study possible gene flow between the two distinct evolutionary lineages. In order to test if the genetic differentiation found in regional populations parallel ecological adaptation, we had established a provenance clone test during our first Scopes project. We expect that during the coming three years the growth of the transplants will have reached an optimal level, which will then allow to test if survival and growth rate, diaspore production and degree of parasite attack differ between the provenances from the Carpathians, the Ural Mountains, The Komi Republic and Sakhalin. A differentiation between the studied L. pulmonaria population into regional ecotypes would have a significant impact on the conservation status of this species, because its global population could be subdivided into regional ESU.
Das Projekt "Genome dynamics and plant speciation: Spatio-temporal evolution of genetic barriers under changing climate" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von University Oslo durchgeführt. How new species arise is a central question in biology, and how climate change affects speciation is currently a key question. Our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying the origin of reproductive barriers among infraspecific populations is a highly debated topic. However, in contrast to the situation in animals, some evidence suggests that new plant species commonly evolve in response to chromosomal rearrangements. Since plant genomes are remarkably dynamic, probably in relation to their high content in transposable elements, it is a timely task to investigate the way genome responds to climate change and whether this translates into the origin of new species. To expand the knowledge about the origin of species, the present project aims at addressing whether microchromosomal rearrangements, and particularly those related to transposable elements, stimulate intrinsic postzygotic isolation in plants. This is best done in an explicit spatiotemporal framework including changing climate as a potential environmental cue. Accordingly, the origin of cryptic biological species within the circumpolar plant Draba nivalis will be dissected by scoring quantitative trait loci (QTL) for sterility in populations grown from reciprocal incompatible crosses, using both Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP) and Sequence-Specific Amplified Polymorphism (SSAP, marking insertions of transposable elements). In order to further analyse the genetic factors involved in the quick rise of reproductive barriers, these sterility QTLs will be characterised by massively sequencing the AFLP/SSAP markers in parallel. Finally, a comparative phylogeograhic analysis of the sterility QTLs and neutral non-QTL markers will allow to reconstruct the history of reproductive barriers, assessing the corresponding evolutionary processes underlying the recent speciation in D. nivalis during the ice age.