International Research Fellowship Program: Evolution of Nickel Hyper-accumulation in the Plant genus Stackhousia

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9到24个月的研究。该计划的奖项将提供联合研究的机会，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Dylan Burge博士与澳大利亚悉尼大学的Balwant Singh博士、悉尼皇家植物园的Maurizio Rossetto博士、南澳大利亚州植物标本馆的Bill Barker博士和美国印第安纳大学的Loren Rieseberg博士合作为期24个月的研究奖学金。为了了解生物多样性并预测生物对全球环境中预测的扰动的反应，如全球变暖，研究极端的适应是很重要的。超过320种开花植物的组织中镍元素的积累量超过0.1%，这一浓度对大多数生物来说都是有毒的。这种现象被称为镍的超积累，代表着对富含镍土壤的一种独特的适应。镍的超积累被认为是在几个植物谱系中独立进化的。最近的研究集中在镍超积累的生态学、遗传学和生理学方面，这项工作的部分动机是这些植物可能用于镍污染土壤的解毒。尽管有这种巨大的兴趣，但人们对特定植物群中镍的超积累进化知之甚少，阻碍了对这种耐人寻味的极端植物适应进化的研究。该项目将结合土壤科学、生态学、种群遗传学和基因组学的方法，以一种协同的方式旨在阐明澳大利亚植物Stackhousia中镍的超积累是如何进化的。这项研究还将发展Stackhousia作为研究镍超积累的演化和遗传学的模式系统。此外，这里开发的方法将适用于其他含有镍超积累物种的植物群，从而更深入地了解这一有趣特性的进化，在开花植物的多样化过程中，它似乎至少独立发育了15次。

0965674BurgeThe International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct nine 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. Dylan Burge to work with Dr. Balwant Singh at the University of Sydney in Australia, with Dr. Maurizio Rossetto at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney, with Dr. Bill Barker at the State Herbarium of South Australia and with Dr. Loren Rieseberg at Indiana University in the US.Beginning with the origin of life itself, evolution has been characterized by adaptation to extreme environments. To gain understanding of organismal diversity and anticipate the response of living things to predicted perturbations in the global environment such as global warming, it is important to study extremes of adaptation. More than 320 species of flowering plants accumulate the element nickel in their tissues to levels exceeding 0.1%, concentrations that would be toxic to most organisms. This phenomenon, known as nickel hyper-accumulation, represents a unique adaptation to soils that are rich in nickel. Nickel hyper-accumulation is thought to have evolved independently in several plant lineages. Recent research has focused on ecology, genetics, and physiology of nickel hyper-accumulation, work that is motivated in part by the potential use of these plants for detoxification of nickel contaminated soils. In spite of this great interest, little is known about evolution of nickel hyper-accumulation in specific plant groups, hindering research on the evolution of this intriguing and extreme plant adaptation. This project will combine methods from soil science, ecology, population genetics, and genomics in a synergistic approach designed to elucidate how nickel hyper-accumulation has evolved in the Australian plant genus Stackhousia. The research will also develop Stackhousia as a model system for research on the evolution and genetics of Ni hyper-accumulation. Furthermore, the approach developed here will be applicable to other plant groups containing Ni hyper-accumulating species, leading to greater insight into the evolution of this intriguing trait, which appears to have developed independently at least 15 times during the diversification of flowering plants.