AGORA · Ancient Genomics of Rainforests
FP7 — People (Marie Curie Actions)
- Duration
- 2013-07-01 → 2015-06-30
- EU contribution
- €298,933
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MC-IEF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
AGORA - Ancient Genomics of Rainforests
The main objective of the project AGORA- “Ancient Genomics of Rainforests” - was to contribute to the reconstruction of the natural history of rainforests from West and Central Africa through the genetic study of a set of widespread tropical tree species by combining my expertise in population genetics and plant systematics, with the host Professor M Thomas P Gilbert (MTPG) background in state-of-the art genomics methodology. The evolutionary history of tropical rainforests has been largely conditioned by the penultimate and last Ice Ages. Dry environmental conditions during these periods in Central Africa lead to the contraction of rainforests in favor of savannas and survival of rainforest species in a few refugia. This seems to explain why African rainforests harbour a lower number of species than the other two main rainforest massifs in South America and South Eastern Asia. Based on the rate of endemic species the location of several refuge areas in Africa has been proposed. The project AGORA contributed to the understanding of rainforest evolution by generating genomic data from eight rainforest trees from Central Africa, which support a scenario of past barriers to gene flow and a history of fragmentation of the rainforest.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Tropical rainforests from West and Central Africa are one of the most diverse but threatened ecosystems on Earth as a result of population growth, agriculture and forestry. Understanding the evolutionary history and ecological processes responsible for this vast biodiversity is thus an urgent task. However, biological research in these areas is extremely challenging due to bureaucratic reasons, conflicts or lack of infrastructures that difficult the access to the rainforest. As a consequence of the colonialism, Europe hosts the most complete botanical collections from tropical Africa. These collections are extremely valuable tools in botanical research since many of them have been collected before the independence in the Sixties in areas which are currently inaccessible. However, these specimens cannot be studied with traditional molecular methods, only suitable for modern samples with well-preserved DNA. The project AGORA - “Ancient Genomics of Rainforests” - intends to explore novel possibilities for the genetic study of these collections, in particular focusing on six widespread tropical tree legumes, with state-of-the art genomics and ancient DNA methodology in order to contribute to the reconstruction of the natural history of the rainforest ecosystem.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- KOBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET · KOBENHAVNCoordinatorDenmark
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union