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.

该项目将研究嗅觉能力和饮食蝙蝠的行为偏好的关节演变以及它们所吃的水果的气味。植物已经发展出了出色的水果特征，以信号成熟，而果实者则发展了专门的感官能力，使他们能够找到成熟的水果。蝙蝠是否以及如何塑造了水果特征的演变，以及蝙蝠的感觉能力如何发展以检测水果信号，但是，人们的理解仍然很差。由于基因植物与食大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具有重要意义。该项目的结果将纳入伯克自然历史和文化博物馆的展览中，并为西雅图和哥斯达黎加的小学学生提供旅行学习套件。该项目还将为多样化的本科生，研究生，一名博士后研究员和哥斯达黎加研究生提供培训。该项目将集中于植物 - 动物互助的相对尚未探索但至关重要的方面：植物与脊椎动物节水剂之间的挥发性化学通信。它将从分析化学，分子遗传学和行为生态学中整合先进的工具，以收集关于两个热带动物和动物的生态重要组（Piper植物和Carollia bat）的饮食，水果挥发性分子，BAT嗅觉基因和行为偏好的前所未有的数据。这项工作将测试互惠性是否对植物和淡菜性状施加了选择性压力，还是通过系统发育来最好地解释其多样性。新颖的比较和实验方法将在：（1）互助强度，（2）水果气味化学成分，（3）BAT嗅觉受体亚基因组和（4）BAT香气偏好中。通过将植物的化学信号与节食动物的嗅觉亚基因组和行为反应有关，这项研究将启动基因组和行为应用在进化生态学中的整合，并启动对复杂系统功能化学生态学的未来研究。