46. Evolutionary Genomics of Australian Plant Ecology

Organised by Rose Andrew, University of British Columbia and Bill Foley, Australian National University. First meeting to be held 9-12 November 2008 at Australian National University in Canberra.

PARTICIPANTS MAY INCLUDE Rose Andrew - U British Columbia (Canada) (Leader) Bill Foley - Australian National U (Leader) Gavin Moran - CSIRO Forestry and Forest Products Hans Lambers - U Western Australia Andrew Lowe - U Adelaide Lindell Bromham - Australian National U Mike Crisp - Australian National U Rene Vaillancourt - U Tasmania German Spangenberg - DPI Victoria, Latrobe U Meg Woolfit - U Queensland

GOAL

The aim of this working group is to develop evolutionary accounts of the Australian flora through selected situations where some knowledge is available about all four of ecological traits, phylogenetic distribution, gene function and genomics.

One selected situation is terpenes, which clearly influence several aspects of plant ecology. The quality and quantity of oil affects plant-herbivore interactions, and the entire volatile terpene fraction is also important to fire ecology. In addition, the overall yield of oil, which is generally also under strong genetic control within species, tends to be higher in Australian members of the Myrtaceae family than in their tropical relatives, suggesting that this trait has been important in the diversification of this prominent family in Australia. The flammability of eucalypts, which is partly due to high volatile oil concentrations in their leaves, has often been suggested to have been a crucial factor in the rise of the fire-adapted flora of Australia. Since the precise selective agents that have led to the diversification and increased production of terpenes by Australian Myrtaceae (and other oil producing fire-adapted plants, such as
Triodia spp.) are not known and are likely to be complex, the adaptive history of these traits is most likely to be understood using molecular and genomic approaches, rather than purely ecological and physiological ones.

Other selected situations may include phosphate transporters, cold tolerance, and traits affecting wood density and mechanical strength.

It is likely that excellent opportunities for postdoc proposals may emerge from discussions at the first meeting. If researchers are at the right career stage and are interested to write a postdoc proposal that bridges between functional genomics and ecology in Australia, the Network may be willing to support their attendance at this meeting. Enquiries to vegadmin@bio.mq.edu.au.

Last updated December 2007