Norbert Holstein

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Dipl. biol. Norbert Holstein

Systematic Botany
Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich
Menzinger Str. 67
80638 Munich
Germany

Tel.: +49-89-17861-251
Fax: +49-89-172638

E-Mail: holstein(at)lrz.uni-muenchen.de

Profile on the institute homepage
Profile in the VOLVOXwiki

My PhD thesis

Evolution and biogeography in Coccinia (Cucurbitaceae)

Coccinia is a genus of the cucumber family, comprising 28 species. All species occur in sub-Saharan Africa, with one species, Coccinia grandis, extending its range into tropical Asia and being naturalized in Australia, on several Pacific islands, and in the Neotropics. After its last complete taxonomic treament in 1881, several new species have been described, but neither species delimitation, nor biogeography is well understood. The genus Coccinia is interesting in several aspects. Coccinia grandis is one in five genera of the angiosperms that contains heteromorphic sex chromosomes. This means that the species has male and female individuals, sex is inherited in a Mendelian manner, and the sexes can be discriminated microscopically, as the the male plants a large single Y chromosome, whereas the females don't. Additionally, Coccinia species occur in a wide variety of habitats with species in arid scrubland, but also in woodlands, and even in rain forests and mist forests.
The goals of my thesis are 1) to revise the genus taxonomically, 2) to find out whether other species of Coccinia have heteromorphic sex chromosomes and to find out the age of the heteromorphy of the Y, using molecular clock dating, and 3) to infer, how often shifts between the different habitats happened.

Publications resulting from my thesis

  • Holstein N. & S.S. Renner (2011): “Coccinia intermedia – a new species from West Africa” Phytokeys 7: 27–36 open access
  • Holstein N. & S.S. Renner (2011): “A dated phylogeny and collection records reveal repeated biome shifts in the African genus Coccinia (Cucurbitaceae)” BMC Evol. Biol. 11: 28 open access
  • Holstein N. & S.S. Renner (2011): “Coccinia (Cucurbitaceae) gains two new species from East Africa, three new synonyms, and one new combination” Kew Bull. 65(3): 435–441 online
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