Excellence in Research: Developing a Model System for Studying the Determinants of Flower Morphology in Tropical Dioecious Trees

卓越的研究：开发用于研究热带雌雄异株树木花形态决定因素的模型系统

• 批准号: 2401525
• 负责人: Daniel Koenemann
• 金额: $ 39.14万
• 依托单位: Claflin University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-07-01 至 2027-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2401525&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Excellence; Research; Developing; Model; System

In many plant species, one can find presence of male and female flowers on separate plants or on same plants or single flowers carrying both the stamens (male) and pistil (female) parts. The interplay between genetics and the environment in determining the flower type and development of floral organs in such plants remains largely uninvestigated. To study this phenomenon, the project team will use Coccoloba diversifolia (pigeonplum), a native of neotropical coastal areas of Southern Florida, Caribbean, Southern Mexico and Central America. It is an important native tropical tree and shows a varying degree of flower patterns mentioned above. The team will sequence the genome of this plant species and profile the genetics and flowering patterns found in a wild population to identify the regions of genome that play a role in regulating the development of flowers and floral organs. The proposed experiments, data collection and analyses will provide an excellent opportunity and source material to train the graduate and undergraduate students representing the full spectrum of diverse talent in genomics, bioinformatics, biological data science and conservation. Among dioecious taxa, the factors and mechanisms determining which biological individuals are pistillate and which are staminate are still not well understood. In a small minority of cases, heteromorphic chromosomes have been identified as one major determinant. In other cases, environmental factors have been identified as major determinants. Yet even these cases appear not to identify strict determinants. Moreover, the biological systems in which these phenomena are studied, have been overwhelmingly herbaceous and temperate. The project looks to examine the interplay of genetics and the environment in the determination of pistillate and staminate individuals in a tropical tree with variable floral expression. The project will (1) assemble and annotate the complete nuclear genome of the study taxon Coccoloba diversifolia using a combination of short- and long-read DNA sequencing along with proximity ligation, (2) identify the genetic regions contributing to the determination of pistillate or staminate individuals through population sampling, shallow whole genome shotgun sequencing and the identification of morphology-specific reads, and (3) assess the contribution of environment in determining flower morphology through the documentation of flower morphology ratios in relation to environmental conditions for populations of C. diversifolia in South Florida. The project team will provide training and skills development opportunities to students from underserved communities on experiential learning, genomics, and bioinformatics.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.

在许多植物物种中，人们可以在不同的植物或同一植物上发现雄花和雌花的存在，或者在单朵花上同时带有雄蕊（雄性）和雌蕊（雌性）部分。 遗传学和环境在决定此类植物的花型和花器官发育方面的相互作用在很大程度上仍未得到研究。为了研究这一现象，项目团队将使用 Coccoloba diversifolia（鸽子），它原产于佛罗里达州南部、加勒比海、墨西哥南部和中美洲的新热带沿海地区。它是一种重要的本土热带树种，具有上述不同程度的花朵图案。该团队将对这种植物的基因组进行测序，并分析野生种群中发现的遗传和开花模式，以确定在调节花和花器官发育中发挥作用的基因组区域。 拟议的实验、数据收集和分析将为培养代表基因组学、生物信息学、生物数据科学和保护领域各种人才的研究生和本科生提供绝佳的机会和原材料。在雌雄异株的类群中，决定哪些生物个体是雌花、哪些是雄花的因素和机制仍不清楚。在少数情况下，异形染色体已被确定为一个主要决定因素。在其他情况下，环境因素已被确定为主要决定因素。然而，即使这些案例似乎也没有确定严格的决定因素。此外，研究这些现象的生物系统绝大多数都是草本植物和温带的。该项目旨在研究遗传和环境的相互作用，以确定具有不同花表达的热带树木中的雌花和雄花个体。该项目将 (1) 使用短读长和长读 DNA 测序以及邻近连接相结合的方式组装和注释研究分类群 Coccoloba diversifolia 的完整核基因组，(2) 确定有助于确定雌性或雌性的遗传区域。通过群体采样、浅层全基因组鸟枪测序和形态特异性读数的识别来使个体退化，以及（3）通过记录与群体环境条件相关的花形态比率来评估环境在确定花形态方面的贡献南佛罗里达州的 C. diversifolia。该项目团队将为来自服务不足社区的学生提供体验式学习、基因组学和生物信息学方面的培训和技能发展机会。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。