Long-term Sabbatical

Synthesizing data on natural selection and genetics across multiple scales

PI(s): Jeffrey K Conner (Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan State University)
Start Date: 1-Sep-2013
End Date: 31-May-2014
Keywords: genomics, natural selection, mating systems, evolutionary genetics

I propose to create a database of phenotypic, genetic, genomic, and fitness data from wild radish (Raphanus) and relatives. The database would address three major themes in evolutionary biology: lifetime male and fitness and phenotypic evolution, especially in response to biotic interactions; genetics and genomics across multiple scales, from within populations to across a large and important plant family; and rapid evolution, including evolution of agricultural weeds and domestication. The database would include eight estimates of the G-matrix and selection gradients (β) for the same six floral traits from the same population, including detailed pollinator observations. Data on the same traits for 48 populations from all known species and subspecies of Raphanus from across the globe and 24 species sampled across the family Brassicaceae would be included. Links to stored seeds, tissue and DNA samples, digital photos of flowers and whole plants, and sequence data (whole-genome, cDNA, RNA-seq, RAD-tag) would be included. This project should contribute to several of the synthetic modes of Sidlauskas et al. (2010). The most obvious would be Data Aggregation and Reuse of Results, because the database would aggregate data from a large number of studies and facilitate reuse of these results by the wider community. Methodological Integration, Conceptual Synthesis and the "interdisciplinary aspect" could result from combining genetic, genomic, ecological, and evolutionary data collected using many different methods across diverse field, greenhouse and lab studies, and across both micro- and macroevolutionary scales.