Collaborative Research: Dimensions: Desiccation and Diversity in Dryland Mosses

合作研究：维度：旱地苔藓的干燥和多样性

基本信息

批准号：
1638956
负责人：
Brent Mishler
金额：
$ 34.5万
依托单位：
University of California-Berkeley
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2017
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2017-01-01 至 2021-12-31
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1638956&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
Collaborative Research Dimensions Desiccation Diversity

项目摘要

Mosses are the second most diverse group of land plants and they play important ecological roles in terrestrial ecosystems. Since an early divergence from other land plants some 450 million years ago, mosses took a different path than vascular plants to solving the challenges to survival and reproduction posed by terrestrial environments. One important trait that is well developed in mosses is the capability of drying without dying, known as desiccation tolerance (DT). This critical trait allows many mosses to survive and reproduce even in drylands, and may be the key to their survival in the face of current, rapid climate change. Syntrichia is a large and diverse genus of mosses occurring worldwide and generally in dryland habitats. Despite their dominance in certain communities such as biological soil crusts, surprisingly little is known about the drivers of biodiversity in this clade. This interdisciplinary project integrates research from genomic, organismal, population, and community levels of organization in order to build a robust understanding of past and present dimensions of biodiversity in Syntrichia. The overall goals are to understand the evolutionary and ecological mechanisms that have produced and maintained functional diversity at these different levels of organization, and promote training, teaching, and learning via: (1) formal education through field and laboratory research; (2) informal education involving a classroom module, short-film series featuring mosses and biocrusts transitioning from desiccation dormancy, a citizen science program "Citizens of the Crust," and a series of free public workshops.The research will examine tradeoffs between asexual and sexual reproduction, and between phenotypic plasticity and canalization into specialized genotypes, by examining the mechanisms underlying traits (including phenotypic plasticity) that drive diversification, reproduction, habitat selection, and physiological trait evolution in environments with varying degrees of water stress. Specific methods to be employed include: (1) sequencing the full genomes of S. caninervis and S. ruralis; (2) using next generation sequencing (NGS) to develop genotypic markers for population-level genetic variation studies, signature transcriptome tools for phenotypic analyses (related to ecophysiological and ecosystem investigations), and multiple single-copy genes for phylogenetic analysis; (3) transcriptomics experiments comparing different development stages and sexes of both species in response to desiccation stress and reproductive state; (3) ecophysiological experiments on multiple populations of S. caninervis and S. ruralis, and all 15 species of N. American Syntrichia, to assess phenotypic plasticity in the key trait of DT; (5) population genetic studies of S. caninervis and S. ruralis in different environments; (6) building a robust phylogeny for Syntrichia and using it to understand evolutionary trends and correlations among the traits under study, as well as to produce a refined classification; (7) examining the role of genetic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity in the resilience to climate change of biocrust communities that are dominated by Syntrichia (with co-occurring mosses, lichens, and cyanobacteria) in field and greenhouse experiments.

苔藓是第二多种土地植物，它们在陆地生态系统中起重要的生态作用。由于大约4.5亿年前与其他土地植物的早期分歧以来，苔藓采取了与血管植物不同的路径，以解决陆地环境所带来的生存和繁殖的挑战。在苔藓中发达的一个重要特征是干燥的能力而无需死亡，称为干燥耐受性（DT）。这种关键特征使许多苔藓也可以在旱地中生存和繁殖，并且可能是面对当前快速气候变化的关键。 Syntrichia是全球和通常在旱地栖息地中发生的苔藓的大型属。尽管它们在某些社区（例如生物土壤外壳）中的占主导地位，但令人惊讶的是，对于这个进化枝中的生物多样性驱动因素知之甚少。这个跨学科的项目整合了基因组，有机体，人群和组织层面的研究，以建立对Syntrichia生物多样性的过去和现在维度的强有力的理解。总体目标是了解在这些不同的组织水平上产生和维持功能多样性的进化和生态机制，并通过以下方式促进培训，教学和学习：（1）通过现场和实验室研究进行正规教育；（2）非正式教育涉及教室模块，短片系列，其中包含苔藓和生物质量从干燥休眠过渡，这是一个“地壳公民”的公民科学计划，以及一系列免费的公共研讨会。该研究将研究通过概括和概括性的概念化，将现象塑料和概念化在概括之间，将现象塑造式的机制纳入专业化。表型塑性）在水力程度不同的环境中驱动多样化，繁殖，栖息地选择和生理特征进化。要使用的特定方法包括：（1）测序Caninervis和S. ruralis的完整基因组；（2）使用下一代测序（NGS）开发用于人口水平遗传变异研究的基因型标记，表型分析的签名转录组工具（与生态生理学和生态系统研究有关）以及多个单单拷贝基因用于系统生成分析；（3）在响应干燥应激和生殖状态下比较两种物种的不同发育阶段和性别的转录组学实验；（3）对Caninervis和Caninervis和Ruralis链球菌的多个种群以及所有15种美国综合症的生态生理实验，以评估DT关键特征中的表型可塑性；（5）在不同环境中的caninervis和caninervis和Ruralis的种群遗传研究；（6）建立一个稳健的系统发育，以用于综合症，并利用它来了解所研究特征之间的进化趋势和相关性，并产生精致的分类；（7）研究遗传，功能和系统发育多样性在对气候变化的弹性中的作用，这些群落的气候变化是由综合症（共同发生的苔藓，地衣，地衣和氰基菌）和田间和温室实验所支配的。