Collaborative Research: New World Justicia s.l.: A microcosm for understanding covariation of floral traits and pollinators in a phylogenetic context

合作研究：New World Justicia s.l.：了解系统发育背景下花性状和传粉者共变的缩影

• 批准号: 1754493
• 负责人: Erin Tripp
• 金额: $ 30.04万
• 依托单位: University of Colorado at Boulder
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-04-01 至 2024-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1754493&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; New; World; Justicia

This project will investigate how flowering plants interact with animal pollinators over evolutionary time. Flowering plants dominate the majority of terrestrial ecosystems and most depend on animal pollinators to complete their lifecycle. Biologists hypothesize that the interaction with pollinators ultimately increases the number of flowering plants over time. However, important details are lacking about how this might be happening. Flower color, shape, and size are widely understood to reflect adaptation to pollinators. Yet, emerging evidence indicates that microscopic changes in floral features may also have large effects in driving new species to evolve. This project will investigate how biochemical, microscopic and macroscopic traits of flowers vary with different animal pollinators in the water-willow genus, Justicia. Researchers will determine the evolutionary relationships among Justicia species native to North, Central and South America to analyze trait data, including field-based observations of pollinator behavior. The project will train high school, undergraduate and graduate students, including members of under-represented groups and community college students, as well as a post-doctoral research associate. Researchers will provide outreach to the public about the ecological and economic importance of pollination biology through educational exhibits at the University of Colorado Boulder Museum of Natural History and Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Garden.This project will test the hypothesis that variation in morphological traits intimately involved with the reproductive success of flowering plants are inter-correlated and are associated with functional groups of animal visitors. Researchers will investigate the evolutionary history of New World Justicia (Acanthaceae; the Acanthus family), whose ca. 400 species show remarkable diversity in micro-morphological floral traits essential to reproduction, including anthers, pollen and stigmas, and support a range of vertebrate and invertebrate pollinators. Outcomes of the research will include a comprehensive phylogenetic hypothesis for New World Justicia species based on nuclear genomic data, a quantitative analysis of macro- and micro-morphological variation in relationship to pollinator type, and improved taxonomic circumscriptions for this widespread yet poorly characterized lineage. Research will facilitate the discovery and description of species new to science, build herbarium research collections, and expand ethological information about pollinating animals. Targeted fieldwork in five Neotropical countries will strengthen international collaborations among US and Latin American scientists and facilitate investigation of this species-rich lineage.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该项目将在进化时间调查开花植物如何与动物传粉媒介相互作用。开花植物主导着大多数陆地生态系统，并且最依赖动物传粉媒介来完成其生命周期。生物学家假设与授粉媒介的相互作用最终会随着时间的推移增加开花植物的数量。但是，关于这可能如何发生的重要细节。花色，形状和大小被广泛理解，以反映对传粉媒介的适应。然而，新兴的证据表明，花卉特征的微观变化在驱动新物种进化时也可能产生很大的影响。该项目将调查花朵的生化，显微镜和宏观特征如何随着水威利亚属的不同动物传粉媒介而变化。研究人员将确定北美洲，中美洲和南美洲原产性的Justicia物种之间的进化关系，以分析性状数据，包括基于现场的授粉媒介行为观察。该项目将培训高中，本科生和研究生，包括代表性不足的团体和社区大学生的成员以及博士后研究助理。研究人员将通过教育展览在科罗拉多大学博尔德大学自然历史博物馆和兰乔圣塔安娜植物园的教育展览中向公众提供有关授粉生物学的生态和经济重要性。该项目将检验形式的变化，即形式特征与开花植物的成功相关的群体与动物相关的群体相关的差异与动物相关均与功能相关。研究人员将调查新世界Justicia（Acanthaceae; Acanthus家族）的进化史，其大约400种在包括花药，花粉和柱头在内的微晶状体花卉特征中表现出显着的多样性，并支持一系列脊椎动物和无脊椎动物传粉媒介。这项研究的结果将包括基于核基因组数据的新世界公正物种的全面系统发育假设，对授粉媒介类型关系的宏观和微观形态变化的定量分析，以及改善此类范围的分类学限制性限制性分类。研究将促进对科学新物种的发现和描述，建立植物标本室研究收集，并扩大有关授粉动物的伦理学信息。在五个新热带国家的有针对性的实地调查将加强美国和拉丁美洲科学家之间的国际合作，并促进对这种物种丰富的血统的调查。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛影响的审查标准通过评估来进行评估的。