COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: EAGER: Evolution of Plant Defense: A Multigenerational Selection Experiment in the Field

合作研究：EAGER：植物防御的进化：田间多代选择实验

• 批准号: 0950231
• 负责人: Anurag Agrawal
• 金额: $ 24.15万
• 依托单位: Cornell Univ - State: AWDS MADE PRIOR MAY 2010
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-10-01 至 2012-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0950231&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: COLLABORATIVE; RESEARCH; EAGER; Evolution; Plant

Plants, being at the base of almost all food chains, are responsible for feeding the world. In other words, plants provide the necessary energy to sustain all animal life either directly (through herbivory) or indirectly (because carnivores eat herbivores). Because of this tremendous pressure on plants, they have evolved a remarkable diversity of strategies to defend against being consumed. For example, plants possess a variety of heritable physical (e.g., thorns, spines) and chemical (e.g., toxins such as cyanide) traits that ward off herbivores. Theory, observations, and experiments have all implicated insect herbivores as key agents shaping the evolution of plant traits. How plant populations respond to this selection in real time over multiple generations, however, is virtually unknown. This project will address this major gap in current scientific understanding with newly developed molecular techniques to fingerprint genetic individuals of the common evening primrose (Oenothera biennis). Because this project will be conducted in field plots containing plants of known genetic identity either subjected to or protected from insect herbivory, the investigators will gain new insight into both the evolutionary process in general and the specific traits that evolve in response to insect herbivore attack under natural environmental conditions. This project will be one of the most rigorous investigations of the evolution of plant defense performed to date, and will assess the impact of herbivores on changes in plant chemical defenses and genetic composition of the population. In addition, responses of the insect community to changes in the genetic make-up of the plant populations will be determined.Broader impacts of this study include educational efforts directed to K-12 students, undergraduates, graduate students, and the general public. Because the work proposed examines evolutionary changes over relatively short time scales, engaging teachers and the general public can be readily accomplished through outreach efforts and field trips. The message of evolution by natural selection and plant-herbivore interactions will be taken into K-12 classrooms via an established program at Cornell University (Cornell Institute for Biology Teachers).

几乎所有食物链的植物都负责养活世界。 换句话说，植物提供了必要的能量，可以直接（通过草食生物）或间接维持所有动物生命（因为食肉动物吃的食草动物）。 由于对植物的巨大压力，他们已经发展了出色的策略，以防止被消耗掉。例如，植物具有各种可遗传的物理（例如刺，刺）和化学物质（例如毒素，例如氰化物）的特征，这些特征可以阻止食草动物。 理论，观察和实验都将昆虫的食草动物视为塑造植物特征进化的关键药物。 然而，植物种群如何实时多代选择这种选择是未知的。 该项目将通过新开发的分子技术来解决当前科学理解的这一主要差距，以针对普通晚间介绍的指纹遗传个体（Oenothera Biennis）。由于该项目将在包含受昆虫草食性或免受昆虫草食性的已知遗传认同的植物的田间图中进行，因此研究人员将对一般的进化过程以及在自然环境条件下响应昆虫食草动物攻击而进化的特定性状进行新的见解。该项目将是迄今为止对植物防御进化的最严格研究之一，并将评估食草动物对植物化学防御变化和人群遗传组成的影响的影响。 此外，将确定昆虫社区对植物种群遗传组成的变化的反应。这项研究的影响包括针对K-12学生，本科生，研究生和公众的教育工作。 由于拟议的工作会检查相对较短的时间尺度的进化变化，因此可以通过外展工作和实地考察很容易地吸引教师和公众。 通过自然选择和植物植物学互动进化的信息将通过康奈尔大学（康奈尔大学生物学教师研究所）的既定课程（K-12）教室进行。