Clara Sophie von Münchow

PhD Student

Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity
Plant Evolutionary Genomics
Hüfferstraße 1
D-48149 Münster
Tel.: +49 251/83-21044
Mail

Research interests

Genetic variability in <i>Striga</i> (Orobanchaceae)

The parasitic witchweed genus (Striga Lour.) of the Orobanchaceae family comprises about 28 species, naturally occurring throughout Africa. By attacking the roots of important cereals, several Striga species have become the agronomically most important pest plants. Here, we want to understand the macroevolutionary processes of diversification and to investigate the phylogenetic relationships between the species and ecotypes.

Host specificity across populations of the European Mistletoe

The European mistletoe Viscum album is a hemiparasitic plant with over 350 different host species, including fruit crops such as apple. Choices of major hosts are often locally different, and may be contribute to the dispersal and diversification of the parasite. My research focuses on the genetic differentiation between populations of the European mistletoes, V. album (Santalaceae). I use genotype-by-sequencing to obtain genome-wide SNPs. These data will be analyzed with the help of various phylo-statistical tools to (i) understand the population structure of V. album across Europe and (ii) identify polymorphisms that are specific to the parasite's host preference.