RCN: Molecular and Organismic Research in Plant History

全球超过三分之二的人类热量摄入是由植物提供的，我们每次呼吸所消耗的大部分氧气也是由植物产生的。然而，尽管植物在人类生命和地球上大多数生态系统中处于中心地位，但它们的进化史（从大约4.75亿年前的单细胞祖先开始）在日益活跃的发育生物学领域中基本上被忽视了。今天，在查尔斯·达尔文（Charles Darwin）将植物进化史的某些方面描述为“令人憎恶的谜团”一个世纪之后，关于从叶子到根再到花的一切如何进化（第一批植物缺乏这些结构），人们仍然知之甚少。鉴于分子生物学正在发生的革命，植物学家现在有机会以甚至在20年前根本无法想象的方式来破译植物的发育和进化历史。MORPH（植物历史中的分子和有机体研究）研究协调网络的目标将是促进有机体、古生物学和分子生物学家之间的跨学科互动，所有人都致力于解决达尔文的“可恶之谜”（以及其他关于植物进化的长期问题）。主要计划的网络活动包括1)年度会议/研讨会，2)支持学生、博士后和有机和分子实验室之间的跨学科培训机会，3)向科学领域代表性不足的群体开展外展活动（通过在拥有大量少数民族学生的机构举行的小型专题讨论会），以及4)为MORPH RCN开发网站。这个RCN的跨学科互动将为学生、博士后和教师提供一个独特的机会，将历史上不同的领域结合起来，进而在进化和发育植物生物学的界面上发展研究项目。拟议的网络的预期影响不亚于植物进化发育生物学学科的活力和全国协调的努力，以阐明在过去5亿年里支配植物多样化的潜在发育原则。

Plants are responsible for over two-thirds of human caloric intake worldwide, and for the production of most of the oxygen that we consume with every breath. Yet despite the centrality of plants to human life and most ecosystems on Earth, their evolutionary history (from single-celled ancestors some 475 million years ago) has largely been overlooked in the increasingly dynamic field of developmental biology. Today, a century after Charles Darwin described aspects of the evolutionary history of plants as an "abominable mystery," much still remains unknown about how everything from leaves to roots to flowers evolved (the first plants lacked these structures). In light of the ongoing revolution in molecular biology, botanists now have the opportunity to decipher the developmental and evolutionary history of plants in ways that, even twenty years ago, could never have been imagined. The goal of the MORPH (Molecular and Organismic Research in Plant History) Research Coordination Network will be to foster cross-disciplinary interactions between organismic, paleontological and molecular biologists, all intent on solving Darwin's "abominable mystery" (and other long-standing questions about the evolution of plants). Major planned networking activities include 1) annual meetings/workshops, 2) support for cross-disciplinary training opportunities of students, postdoctorals, and early career faculty between organismic and molecular labs, 3) outreach activities to underrepresented groups in the sciences (through mini-symposia to be held at institutions with substantial minority student populations), and 4) development of a website for the MORPH RCN. The cross-disciplinary interactions of this RCN will provide a unique opportunity for students, postdoctorals and faculty to combine historically diverse fields and in turn develop research programs at the interface of evolutionary and developmental plant biology. The anticipated impact of the proposed network is nothing less than the invigoration of the discipline of plant evolutionary developmental biology and a nationally coordinated effort to elucidate the underlying developmental principles that have governed the diversification of plants over the last 500 million years.