EAPSI: The Evolutionary Ecology of Seed Mucilage in Plantago Species

EAPSI：车前子物种种子粘液的进化生态学

• 批准号: 1714080
• 负责人: Elise Elwood
• 金额: $ 0.54万
• 依托单位: Elwood Elise C
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-06-01 至 2018-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1714080&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAPSI; Evolutionary; Ecology; Seed; Mucilage

As the globe is warming and rainfall is less predictable, it is important to determine the traits that allow plants to cope with increased water stress. Some seeds can produce a gelatinous covering many times the size of the seed that expands when the seed gets wet. This functional trait, known as mucilage, may be an important way plants deal with stressful environments--for instance, by increasing seed germination percentage and seedling establishment in conditions of water stress--yet little is known about the trait This study will compare seeds from Plantago lanceolata, known as common plantain, that experience different habitat across the globe. The researcher will determine the frequency of this trait in dry habitats, its effect on seed germination, plant growth, and plant success under low and unpredictable water availability. This research will be conducted in collaboration with Dr. Zhenying Huang, an expert on seed mucilage at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and the Central Mongolian Field Station.Seed mucilage (myxospermy) is found in 230 genera of angiosperms and has been demonstrated to serve a variety of ecological functions including aid in dispersal and germination. There is a trade-off between seed number per fruit and mucilage in P. coronopus along a latitudinal gradient, suggesting that seed mucilage may be costly to produce and mitigate stressful environments (increased temperature and reduced precipitation). The researcher will use a common garden experiment to conduct an intraspecific study on myxospermy in P. lanceolata, a perennial species with a global distribution. The researcher will ask if seed mucilage increases germination and establishment of P. lanceolata under low and high osmotic stress. Through comparison of spatially dispersed populations, the researcher will determine whether seed mucilage production differs along a temperature or precipitation gradient. The researcher predicts that the seed to mucilage ratio will be greater in arid and highly stochastic environments where buffering may be needed. Another prediction is that seed mucilage will improve fitness when seeds are exposed to osmotic stress. This award, under the East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes program, supports summer research by a U.S. graduate student and is jointly funded by NSF and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology.

由于全球变暖且降雨量难以预测，因此确定植物能够应对日益增加的水分胁迫的特性非常重要。有些种子可以产生比种子大很多倍的凝胶状覆盖物，当种子受潮时，凝胶状覆盖物会膨胀。这种被称为粘液的功能性状可能是植物应对压力环境的重要方式——例如，通过提高种子发芽率和在水分胁迫条件下幼苗的建立——但人们对这种性状知之甚少。这项研究将比较种子来自车前草（Plantago lanceolata），被称为普通车前草，在全球有不同的栖息地。 研究人员将确定这种性状在干燥栖息地中的频率，及其对种子发芽、植物生长和在低且不可预测的可用水量下植物成功的影响。这项研究将与北京中国科学院种子粘液专家黄振英博士和中央蒙古野外站合作进行。种子粘液（粘子植物）存在于 230 个被子植物属中，并已被证明可以具有多种生态功能，包括帮助传播和发芽。 沿着纬度梯度，每个果实的种子数量和 P. coronopus 的粘液之间存在权衡，这表明种子粘液的生产和缓解压力环境（温度升高和降水减少）的成本可能很高。研究人员将利用常见的花园实验对披针叶松（P. lanceolata）（一种全球分布的多年生植物）的粘子受精进行种内研究。 研究人员将询问种子粘液是否会增加低渗透胁迫和高渗透胁迫下的披针茅的发芽和生长。通过比较空间分散的种群，研究人员将确定种子粘液产量是否随温度或降水梯度而变化。研究人员预测，在可能需要缓冲的干旱和高度随机的环境中，种子与粘液的比率将会更大。另一个预测是，当种子暴露在渗透压下时，种子粘液会改善适应性。该奖项属于东亚和太平洋地区暑期学院项目，支持美国研究生的暑期研究，由美国国家科学基金会和中国科学技术部共同资助。