Speciation Genomics in Plants: Divergence Continuum and Beyond

Rapid recent progress in ecological & evolutionary genomics is imparting fresh perspectives to the study of population divergence and speciation, i.e. the origin and maintenance of biological diversity. Our group’s research interests revolve around the use of novel laboratory and computational tools for studying adaptive evolutionary responses, speciation, and species radiations in plants (e.g. New Phytologist, 196:652-654, 2012; Molecular Ecology, 22:842-855, 2013; Journal of Biogeography 40, 1013–1022, 2013; Evolution 68:453–465, 2013; Heredity, 111:474–485, 2013; Molecular Ecology 23:4373–4386, 2014). In my talk, I will highlight recent progress of our work. This will include phenome and whole-genome perspectives on population divergence along the entire ‘speciation continuum’ in a model plant group (Populus spp.), and related research on species-rich radiations in biodiversity hotspots that have not been on the “radar” of speciation genomics thus far. In this context, I will focus on selected studies from our ongoing work on South African (restiads and proteas) and South American (bromeliads and palms) radiations. I will highlight the gap that currently exists between genomic research at the micro-evolutionary scale (i.e. population divergence and speciation) and research at the macro-scale of entire species radiations in most groups of animals and plants. I will highlight how this gap might potentially be closed, in model and non-model groups, by integrating speciation genomics more closely with phylogenomics and spatially explicit approaches from ecology.