Herbarium collections hold plant specimens from across the world that were collected in the last three centuries. I am interested to gather more information about these specimens through DNA research. During my postdoctoral work I will focus specifically on the Dutch Flora.
Keywords
DNA barcoding, Dutch flora, hybridization, ITS, matK, phylogenetics
Researchinterest
The Dutch flora contains about 1500 vascular plant species representing 136 plant families. With the Heukels' Flora you can identify most of the Dutch plants by their morphological characters.
We aim to create a DNA-barcode reference library for the Dutch Flora. A DNA-barcode is a small piece of DNA by which we can identify species. It should have enough variation to distinguish to species, but not too much so it does not differ between individuals. Within the Dutch Flora there are several plant groups that are not easily identifiable using DNA-barcodes. We hope to further investigate this.
Currenttopics
To identify and monitor all multicellular organisms in the Netherlands, the project Authoritative and Rapid Identification System for Essential biodiversity information (ARISE) was set up at Naturalis. Within this project, the subproject “DNA barcoding the Dutch Flora” focusses on building a DNA barcoding library of the Dutch flora. With this DNA library, plant DNA obtained during metabarcoding projects can be identified.
There is not one standard DNA barcode by which all vascular plants can be identified. So far, the Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) and the chloroplast maturase K gene (matK) have been obtained for a large part of the Dutch Flora. For each species, three individuals from different populations across the Netherlands have been collected, sampled and sequenced. Collecting and sampling has been carried out by volunteers coordinated by FLORON, the Dutch Floristic Research foundation. This ongoing project creates the opportunity to investigate which DNA markers give better resolution for specific plant groups. While making sure all of the Dutch vascular plants are added to the reference library.
Find out more
ARISE: knowing Nature in the Netherlands
Flora of the Netherlands
Supervision
Bachelor research project:
Finding within the genus Ficaria (Ranunculaceae) a new species for the Netherlands or a possible hybrid between F. verna and F. ambigua through morphologically and DNA-barcoding.
Teachingactivities
Flora and Fauna excursion week for the 1st year students of Leiden University.
