Mrs Imalka Kahandawala
Nationality: Sri Lanka
Year: 2006
Subject Area: Science and Engineering
Cypripedium is a rare and endangered genus, and subjected to high priority conservation strategies across the world. Molecular methods are important in the determination of conservation priorities, however their use in Cypripedium has been problematic due to exceptionally large genome sizes, which vary more than 10 fold across the genus; the greatest range in any single genus of plants.
Surprisingly this variation is not due to polyploidy, as all species are diploid with 2n = 20, but is probably a consequence of a high level of retrotransposon activity. A phylogeny derived from into ITS (low copy nuclear gene) variation provides a framework in order to study the evolution of retrotransposons in Cyprepedium – focusing on different types and copy numbers in a species, also the distribution of retrotransposons on chromosomes.
Furthermore, I have developed nuclear markers to assess the genetic diversity in Cypripedium; these markers will be very important to study the population genetics of
Cypripedium, especially for re-introduction programmes being carried out, not only in the UK and Europe, but throughout the world.
Being offered a Wingate Scholarship has been extremely significant for the quality of my research – allowing me to spend more time for my research by the valuable financial support. I am very grateful to the Wingate Foundation for all the support they are giving to make my research a success.