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Content archived on 2024-06-18

The model plant system Trithuria (Hydatellaceae), a new window into the origin of flowering plants and gene function

Objective

Flowering plants are important because they underpin much of planetary ecology, priming the food chains that power terrestrial ecosystems, and providing us with most of our material needs (oxygen, food, fuel, pharmaceuticals, etc). The study of a few highly specialized model plants (such as Arabidopsis) has been a particularly powerful paradigm for understanding the functional biology of plants. These studies are currently being integrated with large-scale DNA sequencing studies of diverse plant genomes, allowing plant biologists to unravel patterns of gene diversification (= phylogenetics), and facilitating predictive studies of gene function in a comparative biological framework (= phylogenomics). Functional plant biologists have focused the bulk of their attention on the monocots and eudicots, the two largest groups of flowering plants. Until now we have lacked an early evolving angiosperm to provide a meaningful point of comparison for phylogenomic studies of existing model plant systems, and of the crop plants that underpin much of the European agroeconomy. Trithuria submersa in the family Hydatellaceae is being developed as a new model system to fill this important gap. I propose to develop large-scale phylogenetic data sets from genomic data that have been generated for this family. I will use this to resolve the branching order of the first flowering plants, which include Hydatellaceae. This will address a major conundrum in plant biology that has been unresolved since the time of Charles Darwin. I will also explore how these data sets can be used as a tool to better predict gene function and orthology (relatedness) in other major groups of flowering plants. Finally, I will resolve a key problem in the species biology of Trithuria submersa concerning its genetic boundaries, as it is currently unclear if this plant is a single highly diverse species or up to three distinct but closely related species.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Call for proposal

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FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IOF
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Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

MC-IOF - International Outgoing Fellowships (IOF)

Coordinator

UNIVERSIDAD DE ZARAGOZA
EU contribution
€ 231 730,80
Address
CALLE PEDRO CERBUNA 12
50009 ZARAGOZA
Spain

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Region
Noreste Aragón Zaragoza
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

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