engleski

Genetic diversity and evolutionary processes of irises along the Dinaric Alps

Due to still unfinished speciation, reproductive isolation in the genus Iris is quite weak, enabling hybridization and introgression between its species and making the genus an excellent evolutionary model. The Dinaric Alps are an important centre of endemism and radiation of the genus. As new powerful techniques are now available, which provide insights into species colonization and unexpected genetic subdivision and mixture of species, more genetic data is needed for this region, which appear genomically diverse and dissected and the source of postglacial expansions. We are studying mechanisms of microevolutionary processes (isolation by distance and natural hybridisation) in the genus Iris using primarily AFLP markers. One aspect is the study of spatial structure of intra and interspecific genetic markers in order to understand the events of colonisation, isolation, hybridisation and introgression of different iris species, subspecies or populations. Other aspect is in situ study of reproductive isolation and hybridisation of closely related taxa to identify the level of speciation as well as current processes in this taxonomical group.

iris; population genetics; hybridisation; Dinaric Alps; Balkans

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