DOCTORAL DISSERTATION: Testing mutualistic function in a multi-trophic mating system in mosses

博士论文：测试苔藓多营养交配系统中的互利功能

• 批准号: 1210957
• 负责人: Sarah Eppley
• 金额: $ 1.49万
• 依托单位: Portland State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-05-01 至 2015-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1210957&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DOCTORAL; DISSERTATION; Testing; mutualistic; function

About 300 million years prior to the origin of flowering plants, ancestors of mosses were colonizing land and creating the groundwork for the radiation of land plants. Around the same time, microarthropod (insects) inhabitants of mosses appeared in the fossil record. Thus, mosses and microarthropods potentially represent the earliest plant-insect mutualisms, and we propose to test the hypothesis that both of these partners gain fitness benefits when they interact. The PIs will test whether insects move moss sperm to other mosses, akin to the way a bee moves pollen from flower to flower. The PIs will also test whether the insects benefit by having places to lay their eggs that are safe from predators. The PIs will also determine whether there is a food ?reward? provided by the mosses for the insects. These questions will be addressed using integrated ecological, molecular genetics, and physiological approaches.Understanding the fitness consequences of this non-angiosperm ?pollination? system will greatly broaden our knowledge of the diversity of pollinator interactions and mutualisms in the early history of life. Additionally, the project will be used as a tool for teaching ecology, the scientific method, and organism life cycles to students in Portland Public Schools. Middle school students will collect moss from local populations and grow plants through the alternation of generations. Similarly, students will rear microarthropods through the insect life cycle. Data gathered by students will be used in the classroom as a tool to explore data analysis and hypothesis testing.

开花植物起源前约3亿年，苔藓的祖先是在土地上定居，并为土地植物的辐射创造了基础。 大约在同一时间，化石记录中出现了苔藓的微促动物（昆虫）居民。因此，苔藓和微千数可能代表了最早的植物体内互助，我们建议测试两个伴侣相互作用时两个伴侣获得适应性益处的假设。 PI将测试昆虫是否将苔藓精子移至其他苔藓，类似于蜜蜂从花朵到花的方式移动花粉的方式。 PI还将测试昆虫是否通过产卵可免受捕食者的卵的位置而受益。 PI还将确定是否有食物？奖励？由昆虫的苔藓提供。这些问题将使用综合的生态学，分子遗传学和生理方法来解决。理解这种非英天授粉的适应性后果吗？系统将极大地扩大我们对生命早期历史上授粉媒介相互作用和互助的多样性的了解。此外，该项目将用作教学生态学，科学方法和生物生命周期的工具。中学生将从当地人口收集苔藓，并通过几代人的交替种植植物。 同样，学生将在昆虫的生命周期中恢复微量关节脚架。学生收集的数据将在课堂上用作探索数据分析和假设测试的工具。