Matter, Philippe

PhD Project

Disruption of local adaptation in plant populations via pollen immigration

As I’m interested in population genetics –especially the study of gene-flow, as well as ecology of mountainous environment, I found this project particularly attractive. Moreover its up-to-the-date topic renders this project even more relevant and useful for conservation and biodiversity management.

My PhD project is part of the CCES BioChange scheme about population responses to climate change. Within this framework the Ecosystem Management Group focuses on adaptation, phenotypic plasticity and genetic diversity of low altitude, central and high altitude, peripheral populations and poses the question: are central or peripheral populations pre-adapted to future climate change scenarios which suggest an up-ward shift of the vegetation and therefore a shift of the main occurrence of a species?

More specifically I will address the question of the potential disruption of local adaptation in populations via pollen immigration. In contrary to central populations, peripheral populations, might be pre-adapted to site conditions of the future main distribution area (except of future climatic conditions) and may therefore be subject to the disruption of pre-adaptation by incoming pollen and seeds. Hence we need to know the potential of long distance gene flow, and its consequences in terms of outbreeding depression.

Setting up artificial populations in the field and assessing pollen flow among all individuals will allow to model pollen dispersal curves and account for the potential of gene immigration in peripheral populations. In parallel, pollination experiments, – peripheral populations pollinated with pollen from nearby and away sources – will allow for seed set and seed viability scoring, as well as assessment of seedling performance, hence, fitness consequences of pollen flow from outside the local stand.

This PhD thesis will be done in collaboration with Esther Frei and Thomas Hahn, which started at the same time to do their PhD in the same framework within the Group of Ecosystem Management.

The Thesis is supervised by Prof. Jaboury Ghazoul, Dr. Chris Kettle and Dr. Andrea Pluess.

Curriculum Vitae

Field/Lab Experience

Publications

Hahn, T., Kettle, C. J., Ghazoul, J., Frei, E. R., Matter, P., & Pluess, A. R. (2012). Patterns of genetic variation across altitude in three plant species of semi-dry grasslands. PLoS ONE, 7(8), e41608.

Matter, P., Kettle C. J., Ghazoul J., Hahn, T. and Pluess, A.R. (in press) Evaluating contemporary pollen dispersal in two common grassland species Ranunculus bulbosus L. (Ranunculaceae) and Trifolium montanum L. (Fabaceae) using an experimental approach. Plant Biology

Matter, P., Määttänen, K., Kettle, C.J., Ghazoul, J., & Pluess, A.R. (accepted) Eleven microsatellite markers for the mountain clover Trifolium montanum (Fabaceae). American Journal of Botany - Primer Notes and Protocols

Matter, P., Pluess, A.R., Ghazoul, J. & Kettle, C.J. (accepted) Eight microsatellite markers for the bulbous buttercup Ranunculus bulbosus (Ranunculaceae). American Journal of Botany - Primer Notes and Protocols

Dillon, S. K., Nolan, M. F., Gapare, W. J., Matter, P., Wu, H. X. & Southerton, S. G. (submitted) Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of the Mainland Populations of Pinus radiata Inferred from a Subset of Fibre Cell Wall Genes. Molecular Ecology.