OPUS: From the Tangled Bank to Genbank: Multi-Scale Approaches to Insect-Plant Interactions

在这个项目中，两位研究人员共同投入了半个多世纪的时间来研究一种不起眼的小棕蛾和作为其寄主的有毒杂草，他们将撰写一本生态相互作用的科学“传记”。防风草网虫和野生防风草之间看似普通的相互作用掩盖了其非同寻常的复杂性；这些研究人员将在一本针对专家和非专业人士的书中展示生态相互作用的复杂性，以及多尺度方法对理解生物系统的价值。这本书将涵盖空间尺度，从氨基酸酶代谢植物毒素在毛虫的内脏到半球水平的变化，这些物种的分布模式，因为他们被运输出他们的本地范围由人类商业；时间尺度从咀嚼叶子时光合作用的毫秒级变化到几个世纪以来植物化学的进化变化不等。这个项目更广泛的影响是，它将说明在多个层面上处理科学问题的巨大价值。科学培训已经变得越来越专业化，即使跨领域的知识扩展为21世纪科学竞争力提供了广泛的视角。这本书既可以作为有用的信息来源，也可以作为相互作用生态学的多尺度方法价值的一个例子。植物化学、昆虫分子生物学、生态学、进化生物学、昆虫和植物生理学等领域的研究人员可能会通过这个例子，在他们自己的研究中看到不同尺度的联系。出版一本引人入胜、插图精美的书，不仅可以使研究人员和教育工作者受益，也可以使整个社会受益，因为它可以促进人们更广泛地了解寄主/病原体和作物/害虫相互作用等生物相互作用的多尺度研究，这些研究可以对人类健康和福祉产生深远的影响。

In this project, two investigators who have collectively devoted more than a half-century to the study of an otherwise unremarkable small brown moth and the noxious weed that is its hostplant will write a scientific "biography" of an ecological interaction. The seemingly ordinary nature of the interaction between parsnip webworms and wild parsnips belies extraordinary complexity; these investigators will showcase, in a book for both specialists and nonspecialists, the complexities of ecological interaction and the value of a multiscale approach for understanding biological systems. The book will cover spatial scales ranging from amino acids in enzymes that metabolize plant toxins in caterpillar guts to hemisphere-level changes in distribution patterns of these species as they are transported out of their native range by human commerce; temporal scales range from millisecond changes in photosynthesis of leaves as they are chewed to evolutionary shifts in plant chemistry over centuries.The broader impact of this project is that it will illustrate the tremendous value of approaching scientific questions at multiple levels. Scientific training has become increasingly specialized even as expansion of knowledge across fields places a premium on broad-based perspectives for 21st century scientific competitiveness. This book can serve as both a useful source of information and as an example of the value of multiscale approaches to interaction ecology. Investigators in the fields of plant chemistry, insect molecular biology, ecology, evolutionary biology, and insect and plant physiology might, by virtue of this example, see connections across different scales in their own studies. Publication of an engaging, well-illustrated book can benefit both researchers and educators and as well benefit society at large by fostering a broader appreciation of multiscale research on such biological interactions as host/pathogen and crop/pest interactions, which can have profound impacts on human health and well-being.