Genetic diversity, biogeography, and evolution of apomixis in North American Arabis holboellii HORNEM. and A. drummondii GRAY (Brassicaceae)

Abstract

In this project the genetic diversity of Arabis holboellii and the closely related A. drummondii should be analysed on the molecular level with the help of DNA sequences (plastid and nuclear DNA) and microsatellites for several purposes. First, the degree of apomixis within a population has a great impact on the distribution of its total genetic variation. Therefore, populational genetic diversity and the intra-populational degree of apomixis should be analysed using molecular markers and cytological investigations. Second, genetic
variation on the populational level should be used to estimate interpopulational genetic distances and to infer a phylogenetic network of Arabis populations. As a third step, correlations between geograph ic distribution of molecular variation, apomixis and genetic distances between populations should help to elucidate the degree of apomictic variation within and between populations.