Adrian has been using genomic and transcriptomic data to study the relationship between species within the Lolium/Festuca complex of plants. Species from this complex underpin agricultural grasslands throughout the world, and they show significant variation for many agriculturally important traits such as disease resistance, cold tolerance, growth speed, and flowering time. Adrian has created and compared multiple Next Generation Sequencing datasets, making use of both RNA and DNA, in order to investigate the differences between the species on the nucleotide sequence level. Traditional phylogenetic analysis with large protein data sets and chloroplast genomes supports previously identified phylogenetic relationships. However, network based analysis provides evidence for the occurrence of numerous reticulate events between the species.

The findings contribute to the understanding of genomic variation underlying phenotypic traits. It is envisaged that the knowledge and resources developed during this project will aid molecular breeding for the development of more productive grasslands.                         

The PhD degree was completed at the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics in Flakkebjerg, Science and Technology, Aarhus University.

This résumé is prepared by the PhD student.

Time: Tuesday 30 June 2015 at 13.00
Place: Auditorium, Research Centre Flakkebjerg, Aarhus University, Forsøgsvej 1, 4200 Slagelse
Title of dissertation: Comparative Genomics in the Lolium/Festuca complex
Contact information: Adrian Czaban, e-mail: adrian.czaban@mbg.au.dk, tel.: +45 50219761
Members of the assessment committee:
Associate professor, Kåre Lehmann Nielsen, Department of Biotechnology, Aalborg University, Denmark
Professor, Head of department, Odd Arne Rognli, Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway
Associate professor, Søren Borg, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University (chair)
Main supervisor:
Doctor Torben Asp, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University
Co-supervisor:
Doctor Stephen Byrne, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University
Language: The PhD dissertation will be defended in English. 

The defence is public.
The dissertation is available for reading at the Graduate School of Science and Technology/GSST, Ny Munkegade 120, building 1521, room 112, 8000 Aarhus C.