In this interview on wheels we speak with M. Montserrat Martínez-Ortega, professor of the Research Group on Biodiversity, Systematics and Conservation of Vascular Plants and Fungi (BIOCONS) at the University of Salamanca.
Her research group is very active, and she explains that one of the lines in which she is currently involved has to do with the conservation of plants subjected to various threats, including climate change. “We have selected a group of species with taxonomic uncertainty, that is, they are not easy to identify and are usually of the same genus. We are trying to see what the limits are between the species , trying to describe what each one is like with morphological and genetic characteristics ”, the expert explains. “We are studying the part that we call phylogenomics and adaptive, that is, analyzing that part of the genetic variation that could be related to adaptation, something very important because it determines the ability to respond to environmental changes.
Fuzzy genetic borders
In botany the genetic boundaries between species are much more diffuse than in the case of animals. Another of Martínez-Ortega’s current lines of research consists in studying the role that hybridization plays in the evolution of angiosperms. “We work with Quercus , specifically with Pyrenean oak (Q. pirenaica ) and gall oak (Q. faginea ), which hybridize easily with each other. We are developing morphological and genetic studies to find out what those characteristics of typical and hybrid specimens are like ”, he comments. “In this case, the hybrids between the two species have the same number of chromosomes as the parental ones, and we have the idea that perhaps the hybrids are not positively selected, because in general they keep forest masses that are quite pure. But it could be that – and that has yet to be proven – under certain intermediate climatic conditions, hybrids may have some kind of advantage . We believe that the role of hybrids would be precisely to provide flexibility to genomes and facilitate the adaptation of species to new conditions, such as those derived from climate change ”.
Science on the Street is a project carried out in collaboration with the Scientific Culture Unit of the University of Salamanca. Our goal is to get scientists out of the lab and into the outside world so they can tell us what they do. We will be with them at the bar, in the gym, riding a bike … even at an airport!
