R

RNAseq

As environmental change accelerates in the Anthropocene, a central challenge in evolutionary biology is understanding how populations respond to novel and rapidly changing conditions. Adaptation underpins whether species can persist and diverge under increasingly variable selective pressures. While adaptive potential is often inferred from phenotypic change or standing genetic variation, it remains unclear what determines the evolutionary “fuel” that enables sustained response. Using Arabidopsis species as model systems, this thesis examines the genetic basis of adaptation and how variation is generated and structured across biological scales, from life-history traits to gene expression and genomic interactions, with a particular focus on how genetic architecture shapes the pace and predictability of evolutionary change.

Together, this work conceptualises adaptive potential as an emergent population-level property arising from interactions among ecological traits, genetic architecture, molecular regulation, and environmental context. Adaptive potential depends not on the amount of variation present, but on its structure, heritability, and exposure to selection across evolutionary timescales.