1. ¹Institute of Biology, University of Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
2. ²Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
3. ³Department of Biology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA
4. ⁴Department of Multitrophic Interactions, Netherlands Institute of Ecology NIOO-KNAW, Heteren, The Netherlands
5. ⁵Institute of Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
6. ⁶Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
7. ⁷Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
8. ⁸Ecology, Systematique et Evolution, CNRS-Université Paris-Sud XI, Orsay, Cedex, France
9. ⁹Department of Biology, Amherst College, Amherst, MA, USA
10. ¹⁰Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie évolutive, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université de Lyon, Université Lyon 1, UMR5558, Villeurbanne, Cedex, France
11. ¹¹Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
12. ¹²Department of Plant Developmental Genetics, Institute of Biophysics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Brno, Czech Republic
13. ¹³Department of Biology, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA, USA
14. ¹⁴ETH Zurich, Institute of Integrative Biology, Zürich, Switzerland

Correspondence: Professor G Bernasconi, Institute of Biology, University of Neuchatel, Rue Emile Argand 11, Neuchatel 2009, Switzerland. E-mail: giorgina.bernasconi@unine.ch

Received 15 November 2008; Revised 26 January 2009; Accepted 29 January 2009; Published online 15 April 2009.

Abstract

The genus Silene, studied by Darwin, Mendel and other early scientists, is re-emerging as a system for studying interrelated questions in ecology, evolution and developmental biology. These questions include sex chromosome evolution, epigenetic control of sex expression, genomic conflict and speciation. Its well-studied interactions with the pathogen Microbotryum has made Silene a model for the evolution and dynamics of disease in natural systems, and its interactions with herbivores have increased our understanding of multi-trophic ecological processes and the evolution of invasiveness. Molecular tools are now providing new approaches to many of these classical yet unresolved problems, and new progress is being made through combining phylogenetic, genomic and molecular evolutionary studies with ecological and phenotypic data.