Research interests

A recent quantitative genetics study on seed size in Arabidopsis lyrata suggested that selfish parental genes may interact to determine seed size based on a recognition system (Willi 2013, Am. Nat.). Currently, I test the hypothesis that this interaction happens between two important imprinted genes determining seed size, MEDEA (maternally expressed, growth suppressing) and PHERES1 (paternally expressed, growth promoting).

Besides, I perform paternity analysis in the species Arabidopsis arenicola to reveal its mating system.

Publications

Willi Y, Lucek K, Bachmann O, Walden N (2022) Recent speciation associated with range expansion and a shift to self-fertilization in North American Arabidopsis. Nature Communications 13:7564, doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35368-1

Willi Y, Fracassetti M, Bachmann O, Van Buskirk J (2020) Demographic processes linked to genetic diversity and positive selection across a species' range. Plant Communications 1, e100111, doi.org/10.1016/j.xplc.2020.100111

Arnold C, Bachmann O, Schnitzler A (2017) Insights into the Vitis complex in the Danube floodplain (Austria). Ecology and Evolution 7(19): 7796-7806
 
Schnitzler A, Arnold C, Cornille A, Bachmann O, Schnitzler C (2014) Wild european apple (Malus sylvestris (L.) Mill.) population dynamics: insight from genetics and ecology in the Rhine valley. Priorities for a future conservation programme. PLoS ONE 9(5): e96596
 
Kissling J, Bachmann O, Thali MR, Segarra-Moragues JG (2013) Novel microsatellite loci for Sebaea aurea (Gentianaceae) and cross-amplification in related species. Applications in Plant Sciences 1(12): 1300056