CAREER: Floral development in the Zingiberales: An Integrative Approach to Understanding the Evolution of Plant Form and Function

Chelsea D. Specht, IOS-0845641“Zingiberales的花发育：该项目由2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助。该项目启动了对花形态和功能相互作用的遗传机制的长期研究，特别针对涉及授粉“综合征”关键创新的新形态，或使植物对特定传粉者具有吸引力的形态创新。将在重要的农业、生态和观赏植物Zingiberales（热带姜、香蕉）目中研究能够改变传粉者吸引力和影响多样化率变化的新型花的进化。主要目的是研究该目植物器官身份调节因子Zingiberales MADS box-containing基因的结构和功能进化。通过首先关注器官身份，我们将阐明在这个多样化谱系中花发育和多样化的机制，同时增加我们对所有开花植物中MADS box基因和花器官进化的理解。该项目采用比较的方法来确定候选基因在花形态的主要变化中的作用，并研究与传粉媒介的不同相互作用如何影响不同植物群体内的物种形成率。将结合发育遗传学、系统遗传学、生物信息学和比较植物形态学来研究青叶属植物的花进化和形态多样化的模式和过程。虽然模型系统为我们提供了一些生物独立发育系统的信息，以及广泛分化生物的保守发育范式，但这些信息直到最近才被用于理解物种形成的遗传学。1996年，鲁道夫·拉夫写道：“观点的二分法阻碍了进化发育生物学的研究。”这种二分法在有机体/进化生物学和分子发育生物学学科之间仍然普遍存在。与该项目相关的跨学科教育和研究项目将为新一代研究人员提供必要的学术和技术工具，以创造一个智力环境，为在理解特定进化事件背后的基本发育遗传学方面取得突破做好准备。

Chelsea D. Specht, IOS-0845641"Floral development in the Zingiberales: an integrative approach to understanding the evolution of plant form and function"This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)This project initiates a long-term investigation of the genetic mechanisms underlying interactions of floral form and function, specifically targeting novel morphologies involved in the key innovation of pollination "syndromes," or morphological innovations that make plants attractive to particular pollinators. The evolution of novel floral forms that enable changes in pollinator attraction and affect shifts in rates of diversification will be studied in the order Zingiberales (tropical gingers, bananas), important agricultural, ecological and ornamental plants. The main objective is to investigate the structural and functional evolution of Zingiberales MADS box-containing genes as moderators of plant organ identity in this order. By focusing first on organ identity, we will elucidate the mechanisms underlying floral development and diversification in this diverse lineage, while simultaneously increasing our understanding of MADS box gene and floral organ evolution across all flowering plants. This project uses a comparative approach to determine the role of candidate genes in major changes in floral morphology, and to investigate how different interactions with pollinators may influence speciation rates within a diverse group of plants. A combination of developmental genetics, phylogenetics, bioinformatics and comparative plant morphology will be used to study patterns and processes of floral evolution and morphological diversification within the Zingiberales. While model systems have provided us with information about independent developmental systems of a few organisms and conserved developmental paradigms across widely divergent organisms, this information is only recently being used to understand the genetics of speciation. In 1996, Rudolf Raff wrote "Dichotomies of perspective have retarded the study of evolutionary developmental biology." Such dichotomies still prevail between organismal/evolutionary biology and molecular developmental biology disciplines. The interdisciplinary education and research program associated with this project will provide a new generation of researchers with the academic and technical tools necessary to create an intellectual environment primed for making breakthroughs in understanding the basic developmental genetics underlying specific evolutionary events.