Collaborative Research: Chance or necessity? Adaptive vs. non adaptive evolution in plant-frugivore interactions

合作研究：机遇还是必然？

• 批准号: 1456375
• 负责人: Sharlene Santana
• 金额: $ 55万
• 依托单位: University of Washington
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-03-15 至 2020-02-29
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1456375&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Chance; necessity; Adaptive

This project will investigate the joint evolution of the olfactory ability and behavioral preferences of fruit-eating bats and the scents of the fruits that they eat. Plants have evolved an outstanding diversity of fruit characteristics to signal ripeness and, in turn, fruit-eaters have evolved specialized sensory abilities that allow them to locate ripe fruits. If and how bats have shaped the evolution of fruits traits, and how bat sensory abilities have evolved to detect fruit signals, however, remains poorly understood. Because the ecological interactions between fruiting plants and fruit-eating bats are crucial to the maintenance and regeneration of tropical ecosystems worldwide, this work will have important implications in the management of tropical forests. Results from this project will be incorporated into an exhibit at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture and traveling study kits for elementary school students in Seattle and Costa Rica. The project will also provide training for a diverse group of undergraduates, graduate students, one postdoctoral researcher, and a Costa Rican graduate student. The project will focus on a relatively unexplored yet crucial aspect of plant-animal mutualisms: volatile chemical communication between plants and vertebrate frugivores. It will integrate advanced tools from analytical chemistry, molecular genetics, and behavioral ecology to collect unprecedented data on diet, fruit volatile molecules, bat olfactory genes and behavioral preferences for two ecologically important groups of tropical plants and animals (Piper plants and Carollia bats). This work will test whether mutualism has imposed selective pressures on plant and frugivore traits, or if their diversity is best explained by phylogeny. Novel comparative and experimental approaches will link the patterns of diversity in: (1) mutualism strength, (2) fruit scent chemical composition, (3) bat olfactory receptor subgenomes, and (4) bat scent preferences. By relating plant chemical signals to the olfactory subgenome and behavioral responses of frugivores, this research will jumpstart the integration of genomic and behavioral applications in evolutionary ecology, and enable future research on the functional chemical ecology of complex systems.

该项目将研究食果蝙蝠的嗅觉能力和行为偏好以及它们所吃水果的气味的联合进化。植物进化出了各种各样的水果特征来表示成熟度，反过来，食果者也进化出了特殊的感官能力，使他们能够找到成熟的水果。然而，蝙蝠是否以及如何塑造了水果性状的进化，以及蝙蝠的感官能力如何进化以检测水果信号，人们仍然知之甚少。由于果类植物和食果蝙蝠之间的生态相互作用对于全球热带生态系统的维持和再生至关重要，因此这项工作将对热带森林的管理产生重要影响。该项目的成果将被纳入伯克自然历史和文化博物馆的展览以及为西雅图和哥斯达黎加小学生提供的旅行学习包中。该项目还将为不同群体的本科生、研究生、一名博士后研究员和一名哥斯达黎加研究生提供培训。该项目将重点关注植物与动物互利共生的一个相对未经探索但至关重要的方面：植物和食果脊椎动物之间的挥发性化学通讯。它将整合分析化学、分子遗传学和行为生态学的先进工具，收集关于两个具有重要生态意义的热带动植物群（胡椒植物和卡罗利亚蝙蝠）的饮食、水果挥发性分子、蝙蝠嗅觉基因和行为偏好的前所未有的数据。这项工作将测试互利共生是否对植物和食果动物性状施加了选择性压力，或者它们的多样性是否可以通过系统发育得到最好的解释。新颖的比较和实验方法将连接以下方面的多样性模式：（1）互利共生强度，（2）水果气味化学成分，（3）蝙蝠嗅觉受体亚基因组，以及（4）蝙蝠气味偏好。通过将植物化学信号与食果动物的嗅觉亚基因组和行为反应联系起来，这项研究将推动进化生态学中基因组和行为应用的整合，并使未来对复杂系统的功能化学生态学的研究成为可能。