The genetic basis and adaptive significance of pleiotropy: FLC-regulated germination and flowering

多效性的遗传基础和适应性意义：FLC调控的发芽和开花

• 批准号: 1146383
• 负责人: Kathleen Donohue
• 金额: $ 108.32万
• 依托单位: Duke University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-05-01 至 2017-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1146383&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: genetic; basis; adaptive; significance; pleiotropy

"Phenology", the timing of biological events such as germination and flowering, is one of the most important responses of plants to climate change, and it has been shown to influence performance and local extinctions. Different life stages must respond appropriately to seasonal environmental cues to match their development with the corresponding season. This project seeks to understand how the timing of two crucial phenological events, "germination and flowering" can adapt to seasonal variation even though they share a common genetic basis and must respond differently to similar seasonal environmental cues. Pleiotropy occurs when one gene controls more than one trait. Understanding how multiple traits can adapt when they are controlled by the same genes is a major challenge. Genes in a well known flowering pathway in Arabidopsis thaliana have recently been found to also regulate germination, thereby providing a powerful research system for investigating the genetic basis and adaptive significance of pleiotropy. The major regulator of flowering, FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC), operates in a pathway that is one of the best characterized molecular pathways of an adaptively significant trait in plants, and it has become a classic system in ecological genetics. It was recently found that the immediate downstream elements in the FLC-flowering pathway also control the germination behavior of seeds, and that natural variation in FLC is associated with natural variation in temperature-dependent germination. This project aims to characterize pleiotropic effects of FLC and other elements in its pathway on both germination and flowering phenology, identify sources of natural variation in FLC-mediated pathways, and measure the fitness consequences of FLC (and FLC-pathway) variation operating through germination and flowering. This research explores the genetic basis of phenology and environmental cuing. As such, the project will provide basic information on how plants respond to environmental change. The project will also generate genomic data and genetic material that will be made available to the research community through The Arabidopsis Information Resource. This project will provide career opportunities and training in molecular genetics and ecological genetics to a postdoc, a graduate student, a research assistant, several undergraduates, and high school students. An educational module will be designed also so that students can explore how genetic pathways influence organismal responses to environmental change.

“物候”，即发芽和开花等生物事件的时间安排，是植物对气候变化最重要的反应之一，并且已被证明会影响性能和局部灭绝。 不同的生命阶段必须对季节环境线索做出适当的反应，使其发展与相应的季节相匹配。 该项目旨在了解两个关键物候事件“发芽和开花”的时间如何适应季节变化，尽管它们具有共同的遗传基础并且必须对相似的季节性环境线索做出不同的反应。当一个基因控制多个性状时，就会出现多效性。 了解多个性状在受相同基因控制时如何适应是一项重大挑战。 最近发现拟南芥中众所周知的开花途径中的基因也能调节发芽，从而为研究多效性的遗传基础和适应性意义提供了强大的研究系统。 开花的主要调节因子 FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC) 的运作途径是植物适应性显着性状的最佳表征分子途径之一，并且它已成为生态遗传学中的经典系统。 最近发现，FLC 开花途径中的直接下游元件也控制种子的发芽行为，并且 FLC 的自然变化与温度依赖性发芽的自然变化相关。该项目旨在表征 FLC 及其途径中的其他元素对发芽和开花物候学的多效性影响，确定 FLC 介导途径中自然变异的来源，并测量通过萌发操作的 FLC（和 FLC 途径）变异的适应性后果和开花。这项研究探讨了物候和环境提示的遗传基础。 因此，该项目将提供有关植物如何应对环境变化的基本信息。该项目还将生成基因组数据和遗传材料，通过拟南芥信息资源向研究界提供。 该项目将为一名博士后、一名研究生、一名研究助理、几名本科生和高中生提供分子遗传学和生态遗传学方面的就业机会和培训。 还将设计一个教育模块，以便学生能够探索遗传途径如何影响机体对环境变化的反应。