The olive family (Oleaceae) encompasses more than 600 species in 25 genera. Most of them are trees or shrubs, and a few are woody climbers.The family Oleaceae has a worldwide distribution, occurring in tropical, subtropical, and temperate climates. A tremendous diversity of breeding systems has been reported in this family and in particular in the tribe Oleeae. Indeed, besides hermaphrodism and dioecy, several intermediate states such as gynodioecy, or androdioecy have been observed.
PhD Project
The phylogeny of Oleaceae is partially resolved, and recent studies have focused mainly on specific lineages. My thesis aims to generate a robust phylogeny for the entire family in order to investigate the breeding system evolution of Oleaceae, and the patterns of life diversification. Basically, we used a genome-skimming strategy to generate complete plastid genomes and nearly-complete nuclear ribosomal DNA units. |