Eco-evolutionary dynamics of biological invasions reconstructed from ancient DNA

Invasive species are one of the major threats to the biodiversity on Earth but despite their bad reputation, they are also essential models for studying rapid evolution and adaptation, species colonization and climate change.

Although great progress has been made in many areas of invasion ecology, there are still many open questions about the eco-evolutionary dynamics of invasive species and the evolutionary processes operating at different stages of species spread and invasion.

I propose to study the invasive Japanese knotweed species complex to understand species colonization and range expansion by combining museomic (ancient DNA) from herbarium collections with high-throughput DNA sequencing technologies and bioinformatics.

Specifically, I will compare data from historical and contemporary individuals to study (1) key transitions and drivers of plant colonization, range expansion, and invasion abilities, across space and time, (2) the role and implications of hybridization and ploidy variation in plant colonization and invasion and (3) identify the presence of genomic regions under selection.