Closing a Gap in Macroevolutionary Studies: Integrating Fossils and Phenotypes to Illuminate Morphological Evolution in Monocot Flowering Plants

缩小宏观进化研究的差距：整合化石和表型以阐明单子叶开花植物的形态进化

• 批准号: 1949151
• 负责人: Selena Smith
• 金额: $ 52.34万
• 依托单位: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-07-15 至 2024-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1949151&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Closing; Gap; Macroevolutionary; Studies; Integrating

This project will study monocot flowering plants, a highly diverse group of plants that are economically and ecologically important, including many staple foods (grains, plantains, oil palms), horticulturally valuable plants (lilies, orchids, irises), and the main components of ecosystems such as grasslands and wetlands. The leaves and fruits/seeds from both living and fossil monocots will be studied to understand how morphology has changed over the evolutionary history of this important group. Broadening our understanding of evolutionary patterns and processes across all life is relevant to addressing present-day challenges such as how species and Earth systems will adapt to current and future environmental change. The project will provide training for high school, undergraduate, and graduate students, including those who are from groups that are currently underrepresented in STEM fields. In addition, a new website to increase recognition of Earth & environmental scientists who are from a diversity of backgrounds and experiences will be created and a public display at the University of Michigan Natural History Museum will help communicate findings from this research to the public.A subset of monocot flowering plants will be used as a model system for understanding macroevolutionary processes relating to phenotypic diversity. Morphological data on leaf and fruit/seed traits from four orders-Alismatales (water-plantains and seagrasses), Pandanales (screw-pines), Arecales (palms) and Zingiberales (bananas & gingers)-will be collected to build a novel phenotypic framework facilitating the interpretation and phylogenetic placement of fossil taxa. A new time-calibrated phylogenetic tree will be produced using a revised fossil record. Properties of plant traits, including correlations among traits and differences between vegetative (leaf) and reproductive (fruit/seed) traits on phylogenetic inference will be characterized. Finally, the phenotypic data will be analyzed to infer temporal shifts in morphospace, quantify disparity, and determine rates and modes of morphological evolution in these four clades of monocots.This award is co-funded with the Systematics and Biodiversity Sciences program (Division of Environmental Biology).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.

该项目将研究单子叶开花植物，这是一组高度多样化的植物，具有经济和生态重要性，包括许多主食（谷物、车前草、油棕）、具有园艺价值的植物（百合、兰花、鸢尾）以及植物的主要成分。草原、湿地等生态系统。我们将对现存单子叶植物和化石单子叶植物的叶子和果实/种子进行研究，以了解这一重要群体的进化历史中形态如何变化。扩大我们对所有生命的进化模式和过程的理解与解决当今的挑战相关，例如物种和地球系统将如何适应当前和未来的环境变化。该项目将为高中生、本科生和研究生提供培训，包括来自目前在 STEM 领域代表性不足的群体的学生。此外，还将创建一个新网站，以提高对来自不同背景和经验的地球与环境科学家的认可，并在密歇根大学自然历史博物馆进行公开展示，以帮助向公众传达这项研究的结果。单子叶开花植物的子集将被用作模型系统，用于理解与表型多样性相关的宏观进化过程。将收集泽泻目（水车前草和海草）、潘丹目（螺旋松）、槟榔目（棕榈）和姜目（香蕉和生姜）这四个目的叶子和果实/种子性状的形态学数据，以建立一个新颖的表型框架促进化石类群的解释和系统发育定位。将使用修订后的化石记录生成新的时间校准的系统发育树。将表征植物性状的特性，包括性状之间的相关性以及营养（叶）和生殖（果实/种子）性状之间在系统发育推断上的差异。最后，将对表型数据进行分析，以推断形态空间的时间变化，量化差异，并确定这四个单子叶植物分支的形态进化的速率和模式。该奖项与系统学和生物多样性科学计划（环境部）共同资助该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。