Biodiversity in the genus Elymus s.l.
Our first project on Elymus started back in 1986 and was a taxonomic survey of the species in Pakistan. Since then, we have initiated many more or less integrated projects studying various aspects of Elymus biology, including taxonomy, nomenclature, genetic diversity at both species and population levels, autecological preferences, post-zygotic isolation barriers, agronomic values etc.
Taxonomy
We work with taxonomic problems at the species level as well as with the supraspecific taxonomy of the genus Elymus. Considering the complex patterns of reticulate relationships in this group, a strive for strictly monophyletic groups is a futile task. Instead we aim to have a practical morphological classification that conforms with the known phylogenetic relationships to the degree that included taxa have at least similar or corresponding evolutionary histories. The current supraspecific taxonomy is that the genus is divided into two subgenera, which are again divided into four sections, respectively.
At the species level, we have especially studied the species in boreal Eurasia. That includes e.g., species delineation problems in E. caninus, E. mutabilis, and the E. alaskanus complex.
Combined superimposition
This is a method for studying the molecular phylogeny of allotetraploid taxa using single-copy gene phylogenies of the parental genera and combining the matrices with the two copies of the tetraploids.
World Elymus Checklist
WECL is a database of the currently accepted species in the genus Elymus.
Genetic diversity
In these projects molecular markers are used as relative indicators of the genetic diversity between species and between and within populations of species.
Elymus Core Collection
The ECC is a freely available standard set of materials that can be used to simplify comparisons between different studies.
For more information contact: Dr. Björn Salomon.
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