Cel Psylloidea is a basal group of Hemiptera whose internal affiliations are not well understood. This study will attempt to infer relationships between closely related groups of Psylloidea. The approach involves recognition and selection of relevant morphological and molecular characters for cladistic analysis.Homologous morphological characters will be particularly identified in the head of Psylloidea, and their phylogenetic information will be tested. Interspecific variations in structure and homology of these characters will be defined. A second set of molecular characters will be based on nucleotide sequences of 18S rRNAs, as well as on coding gene sequences.Character homology will be established through an alignment based on secondary structure, site by site. Phylogenetic analyses using the morphological and molecular data sets will give for the first time a framework phylogenetic estimate for Psylloidea.This broader phylogenetic context is needed to test hypotheses about plant-insect relationships: evolution of gall production, synchronization of life cycles between host-plants and insects, or role of the host specialization in the evolution of the group. This description of biodiversity for a group of insects of economic importance will require a multi-disciplinary competence in systematics.The project will be firstly conducted at the Museum of Natural History in Basel (Switzerland), where the only active specialist of the group (D. Burckhardt) is in charge of the second most important collection of psyllids in the world. The return phase will take advantage of the theoretical and practical expertise of the return research team in testing evolutionary models of evolution.The mutual benefits of such a promising cooperation between a EU Member State and a Third Country will be to give the necessary abroad experience to the applicant, and to higher the level of scientific exchanges between both institutions. Dziedzina nauki natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiological morphologycomparative morphologynatural sciencesbiological sciencesevolutionary biologynatural sciencesbiological sciencesecologyecosystemsnatural sciencesbiological scienceszoologyentomologynatural sciencesbiological sciencesgeneticsnucleotides Program(-y) FP6-MOBILITY - Human resources and Mobility in the specific programme for research, technological development and demonstration "Structuring the European Research Area" under the Sixth Framework Programme 2002-2006 Temat(-y) MOBILITY-2.2 - Marie Curie Outgoing International Fellowships (OIF) Zaproszenie do składania wniosków FP6-2002-MOBILITY-6 Zobacz inne projekty w ramach tego zaproszenia System finansowania OIF - Marie Curie actions-Outgoing International Fellowships Koordynator MUSEUM NATIONAL D'HISTOIRE NATURELLE Wkład UE Brak danych Adres Rue Cuvier 57 PARIS Francja Zobacz na mapie Koszt całkowity Brak danych
