Project description
Unravelling the evolution of the Physalideae tribe
The Solanaceae family, home to tomatoes and peppers, offers unique insights into biogeography and evolution but presents challenges in molecular dating. Within this family, the Physalideae tribe, with around 300 species, showcases a remarkable feature: the inflated fruiting calyx. This structure, seen in ancient fossils from South America, suggests the region as the ancestral origin of Solanaceae. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the SOLgenbio project aims to unravel the evolutionary and biogeographic history of Physalideae. By integrating fossil data, morphology, and museum genomics, researchers will construct a comprehensive phylogeny. The project investigates how the inflated calyx influenced diversification and dispersal rates, shedding light on how these traits shaped the global distribution of physaloids.
Objective
The nightshade family, Solanaceae, at once illustrates the common challenges of molecular dating and presents a prime opportunity for expanding knowledge of biogeography and evolutionary history. Its most widely diverse tribe, Physalideae, contains roughly 300 species mostly distributed in South America, half of them with fruit key innovations known as the inflated fruiting calyx. The same structures are present in the oldest fossils of the family, recently discovered in the south of South America, reinforcing the idea of this area as the ancestral zone of origin and diversification for Solanaceae. After decades of molecular phylogenetics and fossil discoveries, I aim to introduce an integrative approach to disentangle the evolutionary and biogeographic history of the physaloids in the light of fossils, morphology, and museum genomics. To approach this, I will first infer a calibrated total-evidence phylogeny for the Physalideae including fossils and extant taxa. Building on these results, I will estimate diversification rates to test whether phenotypic changes in the fruiting calyx inflation affected them. Finally, and also using the calibrated phylogeny, I will reconstruct the ancestral areas of distribution of Physalideae, and I will test whether there is a correlation between the inflated calyx and the macroevolutionary dispersal rates. The convergence of genomics, paleobotany, and evolutionary morphology will allow us to test if the inflation of the fruiting calyx may have spurred the diversification and distribution of physaloids over the Americas and across continents, shaping the biogeographic patterns we see today.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics
- natural sciences biological sciences biological morphology comparative morphology
- humanities history and archaeology history
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture horticulture fruit growing
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences physical geography
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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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.
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.
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.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
00014 HELSINGIN YLIOPISTO
Finland
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.