International Research Fellowship Program: Using Empirical Data to Test Population and Metapopulation Models for the Evolution of Mating Systems in the Annual Plant M. Annua

国际研究奖学金计划使美国科学家和工程师能够在国外进行三到二十四个月的研究。该计划的奖项为联合研究提供机会，并利用国外独特或互补的设施、专业知识和实验条件。该奖项将支持萨拉·M·埃普利博士与英国牛津大学约翰·R·帕内尔博士合作的为期24个月的研究奖学金。Eppley和她的宿主将在Mercurialis年度会议上测试种群和集合种群模型，以研究交配系统的进化。这种一年生植物是进行实验研究的绝佳物种，旨在测试这样的理论模型，因为它是一种生命短暂的一年生植物，可以在几周内生长到性成熟。它还提供了一个特殊的机会来确定各种交配系统参数和育种系统之间的关系。正在进行的研究已经为该物种建立了基线信息和技术，包括开发分子标记，这些分子标记有助于研究关于交配系统进化的具体问题。这项研究首次比较了近亲交配和远交种群在结合性别和分离性别的情况下的基因流动速度。该项目还将提供关于风媒植物物种性别分配策略差异对基因流的影响的信息。牛津大学的教职员工一直在积极研究植物进化过程，植物生态学家、遗传学家、生理学家和分子生物学家之间的跨学科互动。帕内尔博士已经与麻黄杆菌合作了七年，他是植物交配系统遗传学以及探索交配系统进化的理论模型的构建和解释方面的权威。

0202645EppleyThe International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.This award will support a twenty-four month research fellowship by Dr. Sarah M. Eppley to work with Dr. John R. Pannell at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.Dr. Eppley and her host will test population and metapopulation models for the evolution of mating systems in Mercurialis annual. This annual plant is an excellent species for empirical studies designed to test theoretical models such as this because it is a short-lived annual that can be grown to sexual maturity within weeks. It also offers an exceptional opportunity to determine the relationship between various mating-system parameters and breeding systems. Ongoing research has established baseline information and techniques for this species, including development of molecular markers that lend themselves to the study of specific questions regarding mating-system evolution. This study is the first of its kind to compare the rates of gene flow between inbreeding and outbreeding populations in the context of combines versus separate sexes. The project will also provide information on the consequences for gene flow of contrasting sex allocation strategies in a wind-pollinated plant species.The University of Oxford's faculty has been actively investigating plant evolutionary processes, with cross-disciplinary interactions between plant ecologists, geneticists, physiologists, and molecular biologists. Dr. Pannell has been working with M. annua for seven years and is an authority on the genetics of plant mating systems and on the construction and interpretation of theoretical models exploring mating-system evolution.