ausblenden:
Schlagwörter:
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Zusammenfassung:
Humans have a vast transformative effect on ecosystems, which keeps shaping plants’ distributions, phenotypes and genetic diversity. Tracing these changes over time is central to understand their consequences on plants’ adaptability to a changing environment. Although contemporary genomes contain a record of species history, inferences based on them are uncertain, and confounded by, for instance, previous demographic history. Ancient DNA research makes it possible to directly assess historical genomes, refine demographic models, and gauge the role of natural selection in shaping the distribution of phenotypes over time. In the first part or the talk I will present an in-depth description of the biochemical characteristics of DNA retrieved from herbarium specimens. Using herbarium specimens collected in the last 300 years, I will show the temporal patterns of DNA damage and decay kinetics in this type of tissue and suggest approaches to authenticate the historic nature of the retrieved DNA. In the second part, I will present two examples of the dispersal of plants outside of their native range, in which plants changed latitude and required additional adaptation to new ecological conditions.
