Projects - dr. RA (Rutger) Wilschut
MSc-research: Epigenetic and phenotypic variation in natural asexual lineages of Taraxacum officinale
After the last ice age, asexual (apomictic) dandelion lineages have expanded throughout central and northern Europe. Some of these lineages can be found as north as central Finland. This question arises how plants without genetic recombination and segregation are able to persist in such a broad array of environmental conditions. Studies in isogenic lines of Arabidopsis have shown that epigenetic variation, such as DNA methylation, can arise spontaneously and can lead to heritable phenotypic differences. In natural asexual populations epigenetic variation therefore could play a role in adaptation to novel environments. In this project we study phenotypic and DNA methylation variation of natural asexual dandelion lineages in order to test the hypothesis that autonomous epigenetic variation can lead to heritable phenotypic variation in natural systems.
