DOCTORAL DISSERTATION: Testing mutualistic function in a multi-trophic mating system in mosses

博士论文：测试苔藓多营养交配系统中的互利功能

• 批准号: 1210957
• 负责人: Sarah Eppley
• 金额: $ 1.49万
• 依托单位: Portland State 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: 2012-05-01 至 2015-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1210957&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DOCTORAL; DISSERTATION; Testing; mutualistic; function

About 300 million years prior to the origin of flowering plants, ancestors of mosses were colonizing land and creating the groundwork for the radiation of land plants. Around the same time, microarthropod (insects) inhabitants of mosses appeared in the fossil record. Thus, mosses and microarthropods potentially represent the earliest plant-insect mutualisms, and we propose to test the hypothesis that both of these partners gain fitness benefits when they interact. The PIs will test whether insects move moss sperm to other mosses, akin to the way a bee moves pollen from flower to flower. The PIs will also test whether the insects benefit by having places to lay their eggs that are safe from predators. The PIs will also determine whether there is a food ?reward? provided by the mosses for the insects. These questions will be addressed using integrated ecological, molecular genetics, and physiological approaches.Understanding the fitness consequences of this non-angiosperm ?pollination? system will greatly broaden our knowledge of the diversity of pollinator interactions and mutualisms in the early history of life. Additionally, the project will be used as a tool for teaching ecology, the scientific method, and organism life cycles to students in Portland Public Schools. Middle school students will collect moss from local populations and grow plants through the alternation of generations. Similarly, students will rear microarthropods through the insect life cycle. Data gathered by students will be used in the classroom as a tool to explore data analysis and hypothesis testing.

在开花植物起源之前大约3亿年，苔藓的祖先就已经在陆地上定居，并为陆地植物的辐射奠定了基础。 大约在同一时间，苔藓的微型节肢动物（昆虫）居民出现在化石记录中。因此，苔藓和微型节肢动物可能代表最早的植物-昆虫互惠，我们建议测试的假设，这两个合作伙伴获得健身效益时，他们相互作用。PI将测试昆虫是否将苔藓精子转移到其他苔藓上，类似于蜜蜂将花粉从一朵花转移到另一朵花的方式。PI还将测试昆虫是否受益于有地方产卵，是安全的掠食者。PI还将确定是否有食物？奖励？提供给昆虫的食物这些问题将使用综合生态学，分子遗传学和生理学的方法来解决。了解这种非被子植物的健身后果？授粉？这一系统将极大地拓宽我们对早期生命史中传粉者相互作用和互利关系多样性的认识。此外，该项目将被用作向波特兰公立学校的学生教授生态学、科学方法和生物生命周期的工具。中学生将从当地居民中收集苔藓，并通过世代交替种植植物。 同样，学生将在昆虫生命周期中饲养微型节肢动物。学生收集的数据将在课堂上用作探索数据分析和假设检验的工具。