On the evolutionary genetics of disease resistance in the Arabidopsis thaliana wild pathosystem

Abstract

In this thesis, I aimed to reveal the genetic and evolutionary mechanisms governing plant-pathogen interactions in wild populations. I adopted Arabidopsis thaliana - Hyaloperonospora arabidopsidis as a model pathosystem to interrogate the relative importance of different genetic processes that affect natural populations. I focused on North American populations of A. thaliana , which are outside the native range and can therefore be considered as colonizing and possibly invasive populations. Hpa is a suitable pathogen for coevolutionary studies because it is a specialist obligate biotroph of A. thaliana , which means it is in tight coevolution with its host.