Objective
Plants show a wide variety of sexual systems. Part of this variation can be explained with the colonisation history and population dynamics. During colonization, the need for reproductive assurance selects for self-compatible monoecy (system with only herm aphroditic plants present in a population).
When population size increases, factors like tradeoffs between investment in male and female function start to play a role, a level of inbreeding is decreasing and males can invade the population. In large, stable populations dioecy (system with separate female and male plants) is considered to be an evolutionary stable strategy.
Such changes in sexual system will have also consequences for the genetic diversity, because with the lowering level of inbreeding the genetic diversity is increasing and the genetic differentiation among the populations is decreasing. Although, these predictions are implicit from the many theoretical studies, empirical evidence for them is still very poor.
This project aims at testing the predicted association between the sexual system and genetic diversity. As a study species, Mercurialis annua will be used because it shows a unique variety of sexual systems from monoecy to androdioecy (where males coexist with hermaphroditic plants) and finally to dioecy. Androdioecious populations differ widely with the percentage of male individuals.
We hypothesise that such fine-scale patterns of sex-ratio variation in M. annua are due to colonisation and patch dynamics at a small scale within sampling localities, and that these processes will be evident as signatures in the patterns of neutral genetic diversity.
The percentage of males in a population will be correlated with the genetic diversity measured by means of microsatellite loci. Then a hierarchical population genetic model will be constructed to consider the effects of both patch dynamics and metapopulation processes on the maintenance of neutral genetic diversity.
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.
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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.
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.
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
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.
FP6-2005-MOBILITY-5
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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.
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.
Coordinator
OXFORD
United Kingdom
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.