A global experiment with diverse Arabidopsis thaliana to test genetic evolution in real time
"Genomics of rapid Evolution in Novel Environments" GrENE-net.org
Gist of the experiment
In 2017, Moi, François Vasseur (CNRS in France), and Niek Scheepens (University of Frankfrut), started a community of researchers to conduct an evolution experiments with Arabidopsis thaliana in dozens of locations.
Researchers at over 45 locations (green dots in the map) joined us and, for three years, we will monitor these A. thaliana populations in size and how they genetically evolve using genome sequencing.
Testing evolution in
variable and extreme
environments
The key idea is to track genetically-diverse Arabidopsis thaliana populations in many environments and monitor over 5 years how their genetic makeup changes as a result of genetic drift and natural selection.
To do so, we use Pool-Sequencing technologies set up in the Moi Lab [https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.02.02.477408] to efficiently quantify genetic changes.
At the same time, phenological and demographic data is gathered to understand what are the consequences of evolution to population persistence.
Example evolution experiment population with Arabidopsis thaliana plants from Niek Scheepens in Tuebingen, Germany.
Coordinators and participants
Niek Scheepens – Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany
François Vasseur – CNRS Montpellier, France
Moises Exposito-Alonso – Carnegie Institution for Science, Stanford, USA
The GrENE-net consortium
Rob Colautti – Queens University, Kingston, Canada
Oliver Bossdorf– University of Tübingen, Germany
Detlef Weigel – Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Tübingen, Germany
Mohamed Abdelaziz – The University of Granada, Granada, Spain
Jake Alexander – University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Carlos Alonso-Blanco – National Centre of Biotechnology, Cantoblanco, Madrid, Spain
Joy Bergelson – The University of Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
Panayiotis G. Dimitrakopoulos – University of the Aegaean, Lesbos, Greece
Kathleen Donohue – Duke University, North Carolina, United States of America
Walter Durka – Helmoltz Center for Environmental Research, Halle, Germany
Steve Franks – Fordham University, Bronx, NY, United States of America
Felix Fritschi – University of Missouri, MO, United States of America
Angela Hancock – Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Cologne, Germany
Svante Holm – Mittuniversitetet, Sundsvall, Sweden
Jose M. Iriondo – King Juan Carlos University, Madrid, Spain
Jasmin Joshi – Potsdam University, Potsdam, Germany
Tom Juenger – University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, United States of America
Steve Keller – University of Vermont, Burlington, United States of America
Karin Koehl – Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, Postdam, Germany
Arthur Korte – University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
Paula Kover and Volkan Cevik – University of Bath, United Kingdom
Carlos Lara-Romero and Anna Traveset – IMEDEA, Mallorca, Spain
Arnald Marcer – Ecological and Forestry Applications Research Centre, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain
Juliette de Meaux, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
Zuzana Münzbergová – Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
Anne Muola – Åbo Akademi University , Turku, Finland
Meelis Pärtel – University of Tartu, Estonia
Xavier Picó – Biological Station of Doñana (EBD-CSIC), Sevilla, Spain
Marcel Quint – Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany
David Salt – The University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom
Johanna Schmitt – University of California Davis, United States of America
Merav Seifan – Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
Remco Stam – Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany
Marcelo Sternberg and Ofer Cohen – Tel Aviv University, Israel
Marc Stift – University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany
John Stinchcombe – University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Peter Tiffin and Liana Burghardt – University of Minnesota, Minnesota, United States of America
Irène Till-Bottraud – GEOLAB, Laboratoire de Géographie Physique et Environnementale CNRS, Clermont-Ferrand, France
Jean-Gabriel Valay – Station alpine Jospeh Fourier, col du Lautaret, France
Vigdis Vandvik – University of Bergen, Norway
Maciej Wodkiewicz – University of Warsaw, Poland
Martijn van Zanten – Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands