Our work focuses on (a) increasing understanding of the genomic nature of differences between plant species, and (b) using this information to guide the development of enhanced ‘genomic barcodes’ to provide high-resolution methods for plant species identification.
Our approach involves:
· Utilising reference genomes and whole genome resequencing data to quantify and map the nature of plant species differences across diverse plant genera, and then undertaking in silico subsampling of these data to explore optimal methods and assays for telling plant species apart.
· Literature review and meta-analyses to provide wider context to our empirical studies, evaluating the proportion of plant species that resolve as monophyletic, the density of species-specific SNPs, and the amount of data required for maximal species discrimination.
This work is undertaken in association with the Darwin Tree of Life and Biodiversity Genomics Europe, and has received funding support from the Wellcome Trust, Horizon Europe, UKRI, SERI, RESAS, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Darwin Trust of Edinburgh