The genetic basis and adaptive significance of pleiotropy: FLC-regulated germination and flowering

多效性的遗传基础和适应性意义：FLC调控的发芽和开花

• 批准号: 1146383
• 负责人: Kathleen Donohue
• 金额: $ 108.32万
• 依托单位: Duke University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-05-01 至 2017-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1146383&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: genetic; basis; adaptive; significance; pleiotropy

"Phenology", the timing of biological events such as germination and flowering, is one of the most important responses of plants to climate change, and it has been shown to influence performance and local extinctions. Different life stages must respond appropriately to seasonal environmental cues to match their development with the corresponding season. This project seeks to understand how the timing of two crucial phenological events, "germination and flowering" can adapt to seasonal variation even though they share a common genetic basis and must respond differently to similar seasonal environmental cues. Pleiotropy occurs when one gene controls more than one trait. Understanding how multiple traits can adapt when they are controlled by the same genes is a major challenge. Genes in a well known flowering pathway in Arabidopsis thaliana have recently been found to also regulate germination, thereby providing a powerful research system for investigating the genetic basis and adaptive significance of pleiotropy. The major regulator of flowering, FLOWERING LOCUS C (FLC), operates in a pathway that is one of the best characterized molecular pathways of an adaptively significant trait in plants, and it has become a classic system in ecological genetics. It was recently found that the immediate downstream elements in the FLC-flowering pathway also control the germination behavior of seeds, and that natural variation in FLC is associated with natural variation in temperature-dependent germination. This project aims to characterize pleiotropic effects of FLC and other elements in its pathway on both germination and flowering phenology, identify sources of natural variation in FLC-mediated pathways, and measure the fitness consequences of FLC (and FLC-pathway) variation operating through germination and flowering. This research explores the genetic basis of phenology and environmental cuing. As such, the project will provide basic information on how plants respond to environmental change. The project will also generate genomic data and genetic material that will be made available to the research community through The Arabidopsis Information Resource. This project will provide career opportunities and training in molecular genetics and ecological genetics to a postdoc, a graduate student, a research assistant, several undergraduates, and high school students. An educational module will be designed also so that students can explore how genetic pathways influence organismal responses to environmental change.

“物候”，生物事件的时间，如发芽和开花，是植物对气候变化的最重要的反应之一，它已被证明会影响性能和当地的保护。 不同的生命阶段必须对季节性环境线索做出适当的反应，以使其发展与相应的季节相匹配。 该项目旨在了解两个关键的物候事件“发芽和开花”的时间如何适应季节变化，即使它们具有共同的遗传基础，并且必须对相似的季节环境线索做出不同的反应。当一个基因控制一个以上的性状时，多效性就发生了。 了解多种性状在受相同基因控制时如何适应是一个重大挑战。 最近发现拟南芥中一个著名的开花途径中的基因也调节萌发，从而为研究多效性的遗传基础和适应意义提供了一个强大的研究体系。 开花的主要调控因子--FLOWERLOCUS C（FLC）是植物重要适应性性状的重要分子调控途径之一，已成为生态遗传学中的经典系统。 最近发现FLC开花途径中的直接下游元件也控制种子的萌发行为，并且FLC的自然变异与温度依赖性萌发的自然变异相关。该项目旨在表征FLC及其途径中其他元素对发芽和开花物候的多效性效应，确定FLC介导途径中自然变异的来源，并测量FLC（和FLC途径）变异通过发芽和开花操作的适应性后果。本研究探讨了物候和环境线索的遗传基础。 因此，该项目将提供有关植物如何应对环境变化的基本信息。该项目还将产生基因组数据和遗传材料，这些数据和材料将通过拟南芥信息资源提供给研究界。 本计画将提供一位博士后、一位研究生、一位研究助理、数位本科生与高中生在分子遗传学与生态遗传学方面的就业机会与训练。 还将设计一个教育模块，使学生能够探索遗传途径如何影响生物体对环境变化的反应。