Forest Genomics

Desire to understand evolution and adaptation of trees at the molecular level is the driving force of our research group

In the finest resolution, evolution can be described as a change of allele frequencies from generation to generation, leading to differences among individuals, populations and species. As a population geneticists, our major goal is to understand what evolutionary mechanisms lead to genetic and phenotypic variation that we observe in these different scales. We work on forest tree population genomics, tackling problems relating to local adaptation, inference of population history using genetic data, effects of domestication and breeding and identifying genetic footprint of natural selection. Studying especially the outcrossing species with large population sizes, such as forest trees is important for understanding how adaptation to various environmental conditions arise. Several of our study species have large, complex genomes, which present additional challenges, but also facilitate questions that cannot be answered using common model species.

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