MRI: Acquisition of a Ploidy Analyzer at Chicago Botanic Garden

芝加哥植物园（CBG）获得了一台倍性分析仪，将用于保护和园艺研究；进行实际的植物保育活动；以及中学、大专、研究生教育和其他合作项目。倍性（细胞中染色体组数）的变异在植物和真菌的进化和多样性中都起着重要作用。植物倍性的差异也有重要的实际应用，从为恢复项目选择合适的植物到它对农艺和园艺作物的育种和选择的影响。通过染色体固定、染色和显微镜分析来分析倍性的传统方法耗时、不准确，并且不适合分析大量样品。倍性分析仪将允许快速，廉价，高样本量处理植物和真菌DNA倍性和核基因组大小。这将广泛加强CBG。美国保护和园艺研究、教育计划、永久植物收集活动和其他合作。CBG的工作人员将通过科学和流行的出版物、演讲、现场解释和展示，以及CBG？年代的网站。公众还将受益于加强自然区域的恢复实践，受益于改良的园林观赏植物，受益于作为学生、志愿者和项目外部合作伙伴的机会，这些都是由倍性分析仪实现的。芝加哥植物园的保护研究涵盖了小而分散的种群的生物学；稀有和入侵植物物种以及真菌种群的遗传学；植物和真菌对气候变化和生态系统管理的响应；以及种群分子遗传多样性的时空格局。倍性分析仪将为不同倍性物种的恢复研究划定种子转移区，以及评估不同倍性物种的种子储存寿命等研究提供可能，因为高倍性种子的较大细胞大小会影响冷冻种子的寿命。倍性分析仪也会影响CBG吗？美国的园艺计划，例如提供育种计划匹配杂交中使用的亲本倍性的能力，评估经过处理的植物的倍性以增加其倍性，并帮助开发不育的三倍体景观植物以避免潜在的入侵。该倍性分析仪还将提供给区域保护研究人员和恢复从业者，以及无法使用该设备的商业和独立植物育种者。

An award is made to the Chicago Botanic Garden (CBG) to acquire a ploidy analyzer that will be utilized for conservation and horticultural research; for practical plant conservation activities; and for secondary, post-secondary, and graduate education and other collaborative projects. Variations in ploidy (the number of sets of chromosomes in a cell) play an important role in both plant and fungal evolution and diversity. Differences in plant ploidy also have significant practical applications, from the selection of appropriate plants for restoration projects to its impact on breeding and selection of agronomic and horticultural crops. The traditional method of analyzing ploidy via chromosome fixation, staining, and microscopic analysis is time consuming, inexact, and impractical for analyzing a large volume of samples. The ploidy analyzer will allow the rapid, inexpensive, and high-sample volume processing of plant and fungal DNA ploidy and nuclear genome size. This will broadly enhance CBG?s conservation and horticulture research, education programs, permanent plant collections activities, and other collaborations. CBG staff will disseminate their research results to professional, scientific, and public audiences through scientific and popular publications, presentations, on-site interpretation and displays, and through CBG?s website. The public will also benefit from enhanced restoration practices for natural areas, from improved ornamental plants for garden use, and from opportunities to serve as students, volunteers, and outside partners on the projects made possible by the ploidy analyzer.Chicago Botanic Garden conservation studies encompass the biology of small, fragmented populations; the genetics of both rare and invasive plant species, as well as fungal populations; plant and fungal responses to climate change and to ecosystem management; and spatial and temporal patterns of molecular genetic diversity in populations. The ploidy analyzer will make possible such studies as delineation of seed transfer zones for restoration studies of species with varied ploidy levels, and assessing seed longevity in storage of species with varied ploidy, as the larger cell sizes of higher ploidy seed can impact the longevity of frozen seed. The ploidy analyzer will also impact CBG?s horticultural programs, such as affording the breeding program the ability to match the ploidy of the parents used in crosses, assess the ploidy of plants treated to increase their ploidy, and aid in developing sterile triploid forms of landscape plants to avoid potential invasions. The ploidy analyzer will also be made available to regional conservation researchers and restoration practitioners as well as to commercial and independent plant breeders that do not access to this equipment.