Download Doctoral research project, the Sant`Anna school of advance studies

Doctoral research project, the Sant’Anna school of advance studies, University of Pisa
Title:
Interaction between adaptation and gene flow in Abies alba populations in response to
climate change. An experimental genomic and simulation approach along altitudinal
gradients in Europe.
Summary
To survive the observed and predicted climatic trends, animal and plant populations will have
to adapt locally and/or to migrate toward higher latitudes/ altitudes. Forest trees are sessile
long-lived organisms, and thus their selection /migration / drift equilibrium might put them at
a disadvantage whenever the environment changes abruptly. This project, combining
experimental and modelling approaches, aims at evaluating whether adaptation and gene flow
in natural populations of European forest trees will be sufficient to adjust to the predicted rate
of climatic change.
The experimental approach will quantify the joint variation of a priori adaptive genes and
adaptive phenotypic traits in silver fir (Abies alba) populations replicated along altitudinal
gradients in several European forests, in order to characterise the balance between past
selection and migration in the response to spatial heterogeneity in climatic conditions.
The modelling approach will make it possible to jointly analyze the respective roles of
selection, gene flow and species life history traits in the evolution of 1) genetic diversity at
candidate genes for adaptive traits and 2) variability of these phenotypic traits.
To make the better use of multi-disciplinary capacities across laboratories in Europe, the PhD
project will be carried out in collaboration between CNR-IFG Firenze (genomics) and INRAURFM Avignon (ecological genetics and modelling).
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-Bruno Fady
INRA URFM / FR ECCOREV
Domaine St Paul
Site Agroparc
84914 Avignon
Coord : 43°54'50"N ; 04°52'47"E
tel : 04 32 72 29 08 / 04 42 90 84 74
portable : 06 87 45 30 71
courriel : [email protected]
web : http://www.avignon.inra.fr/URFM