Here we present broad research topics that are open for students of any stage. If you are interested in joining us within a Bachelor, Master or Phd thesis or Internship, please contact the referred research groups or group leader directly.
We cover a wide range of topics related to evolutionary processes that underlie the fascinating diversity of plants. We work from basic research revealing WHY something works in nature to more applied issues related to agricultural use or practical conservation . In our work, we combine a wide range of methods, and it only depends on your preferences whether you target your topic as field research, a greenhouse experiment, a genetic study, or computer-analytical research . Our approach is based on open collaboration, from colleagues in the next room to a number of teams abroad, and on support in a friendly environment without unnecessary hierarchy.
Adapting plants in a changing world
Plants cannot run away, so adapting to their environment is a key way to survive. We focus mainly on adaptation to extreme environments such as high mountains or toxic soils. Such sites create unique natural experiments to study live evolution or to elucidate the processes that can be used in breeding or phytoremediation. Because adaptation occurs in many places in parallel, we also examine whether evolution can be repeated and to what extent the course of evolution can be predicted. We investigate adaptation with a diverse range of approaches, from practical transplant experiments in the field to sequencing the genomes of entire populations to reveal individual key genes.
Contact: filip.kolar (at) natur.cuni.cz
Genome duplication as an evolutionary opportunity?
Genome duplication is a special large-scale mutation behind the evolutionary success of plants, including a number of key crops and invasive species. Although potatoes, wheat, bananas or coffee owe their properties to genomic duplication, we do not yet know how the doubling of the genome actually ensures higher evolutionary fitness in nature. Because more and more mutants with a double genome are emerging all around us, we use these "natural laboratories" and reveal their evolutionary potential in real conditions. We answer the questions with a wide range of approaches from purely field surveys, through evolutionary experiments to cytometric and bioinformatics analyzes of new sequencing data. Our research is now also funded by a prestigious start-up grant from the European Research Council (ERC), of which there are only a handful in the Czech Republic so far.
Contact: martin.certner (at) natur.cuni.cz, filip.kolar (at) natur.cuni.cz
Processes creating captivating tropical diversity
The tropics are a fascinating center of global diversity and include the fastest emerging species in the world. Our teams are also involved in research on evolutionary processes in the tropics, lowlands and & nbsp; mountains. With the help of extensive international cooperation, we compare South American, African and Asian groups of plants and find out the influence of geography and ecological links on historical processes forming the local exceptional species diversity. In our projects we combine field work, cytometry, new phylogenetic approaches as well as modern analyzes of "big data" on the distribution and biological properties of species.
Contact: tomas.fer (at) natur.cuni.cz, roswitha.schmickl (at) natur.cuni.cz, zuzana.chumova (at) ibot.cas.cz, pavel.travnicek (at) ibot.cas.cz
A diverse world of plant reproductive strategies
Plants are experts in combining different propagation methods that have a direct impact on how new species are created or how new crops are bred. In plants, it is no exception that a single plant is cloned and propagated sexually with several partners, including itself, all at once in one place and at one time! A good practical knowledge of the plant "red library" from the field helps us to look into this mess of processes, which we combine with detailed laboratory and garden experiments, modern microscopic techniques or genomic analyzes.
Contact: lafonplc (at) natur.cuni.cz, chrtek (at) ibot.cas.cz, mrazpat (at) natur.cuni.cz
New approaches in the practical protection of plant populations
Many rare and declining species are even more endangered by crossing with closely related common or introduced species. Due to such "genetic erosion", the rare species may eventually dissolve in the sea of the more common species, usually irreversibly. However, the problem for practice is insufficient diagnostics, because this process is often not reliable with the naked eye until it is too late. In our research, therefore, we look for new ways to detect such dangerous hybrids and create methods that can be immediately applied by conservation workers in their work. That is why we also work closely with the Nature and Landscape Protection Agency of the Czech Republic.
Contact: tomas.urfus (at) natur.cuni.cz, marek.slovak (at) natur.cuni.cz, zdenek.kaplan (at) ibot.cas.cz
Mediterranean-type flora and vegetation across continents
Mediterranean areas occur in temperate latitudes where favourable climatic conditions create opportunities for the development of specific Mediterranean-type vegetation. Although the Mediterranean region is the best known, it is not the only one where such vegetation has developed and where we find a fascinating species richness with a high degree of endemism. In addition to the above mentioned and relatively close to us Mediterranean region, the flora of the Cape Floristic Region (Capensis) of the south-western part of South Africa has also come into our interest. In both areas we are investigating the evolutionary processes that have shaped the local flora and that have contributed to the unusual development of the species richness here. In addition to fieldwork, our research uses available biosystematic approaches ranging from flow cytometry and cytogenetics to phylogenetic analyses and evolutionary modelling.
Contact: zuzana.chumova (at) ibot.cas.cz, pavel.travnicek (at) ibot.cas.cz