DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Consequences of Indirect Defensive Traits on Microbial Diversity

论文研究：间接防御特征对微生物多样性的影响

• 批准号: 1209031
• 负责人: Anurag Agrawal
• 金额: $ 1.49万
• 依托单位: Cornell University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-06-01 至 2014-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1209031&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DISSERTATION; RESEARCH; Consequences; Indirect; Defensive

Plants have evolved many interesting ways to defend themselves against their enemies, pathogens (generally microbes such as fungus) and herbivores (insects, for example). One approach plants use for defense is to attract species that suppress pathogens or herbivores -- enemies of their enemies -- by offering food or shelter. This research explores the effectiveness of providing food and shelter through experiments that focus on mites that eat harmful fungi on leaves. The effectiveness of providing food will be explored by experiments with extrafloral nectaries, small glands on leaves that secrete sugar and attract mites and ants. The effectiveness of providing shelter will be explored by experiments with leaf domatia, tiny structures on the undersides of leaves that house fungus-eating mites. The traits studied in this work, extrafloral nectarines and domatia, are very widespread: they are present on many common trees and popular ornamental shrubs, as well as on crop plants such as cotton, coffee and grape. Additionally, the interactions between these traits, mites and fungi are used in agriculture as a way to decrease plant pathogen damage without the use of harmful fungicides. Thus, understanding their evolution and ecology can inform how we manage species interactions in our local ecosystems as well as in our crops and urban landscapes. Undergraduate students will be involved in this project and mentored in research. Likewise, a program is in place to communicate the work to middle school students.

植物已经进化出许多有趣的方式来保护自己免受敌人，病原体（通常是真菌等微生物）和食草动物（例如昆虫）的侵害。 植物用于防御的一种方法是通过提供食物或庇护所来吸引那些抑制病原体或食草动物的物种。 这项研究通过实验探索了提供食物和住所的有效性，这些实验的重点是吃树叶上有害真菌的螨虫。 提供食物的有效性将通过花外蜜腺的实验来探索，蜜腺是叶子上分泌糖和吸引螨虫和蚂蚁的小腺体。提供庇护所的有效性将通过对叶子domatia的实验来探索，叶子domatia是叶子下面的微小结构，可以容纳食真菌的螨虫。 在这项工作中研究的性状，花外油桃和domatia，是非常广泛的：它们存在于许多常见的树木和流行的观赏灌木，以及作物，如棉花，咖啡和葡萄。此外，这些性状、螨类和真菌之间的相互作用在农业中被用作在不使用有害杀真菌剂的情况下减少植物病原体损害的方式。因此，了解它们的进化和生态学可以为我们如何管理当地生态系统以及作物和城市景观中的物种相互作用提供信息。 本科生将参与这个项目，并在研究指导。 同样，还制定了一个方案，向中学生宣传这项工作。