Abstract
The proposed research is concerned with evaluating how the mating decisions that plants make affect their potential to respond to environmental change, as a result of changes in genetic diversity resulting from different levels of inbreeding. This project will address this question by examining naturally occurring populations of a species that is normally outcrossing (i.e., is only able to breed with unrelated individuals), but for which populations have been identified that have experienced a change in the genetic machinery required to maintain this mating strategy. The study will examine variation in 1) genes that are directly involved in controlling rates of outcrossing; 2) genes that are in physical proximity to these gene regions; and 3) unrelated reference loci that can be used to test population genetics models about changes in demographic attributes of populations in relation to breeding systems. The tied studentship will test hypotheses about when the shift in mating system occurred in relation to post-glacial colonization to their current distribution area and whether loss of outcrossing mechanisms is a heritable trait. Since the plants used in this study are restricted to habitats that have been fragmented as a result of human population growth, the study could have implications for predicting how changes in breeding strategies will influence the ability of populations to adapt to changes in population size or restriction of migration between populations as a result of human activities.
United Kingdom