EAPSI: The Evolutionary Ecology of Seed Mucilage in Plantago Species

EAPSI：车前子物种种子粘液的进化生态学

• 批准号: 1714080
• 负责人: Elise Elwood
• 金额: $ 0.54万
• 依托单位: Elwood Elise C
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-06-01 至 2018-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1714080&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAPSI; Evolutionary; Ecology; Seed; Mucilage

As the globe is warming and rainfall is less predictable, it is important to determine the traits that allow plants to cope with increased water stress. Some seeds can produce a gelatinous covering many times the size of the seed that expands when the seed gets wet. This functional trait, known as mucilage, may be an important way plants deal with stressful environments--for instance, by increasing seed germination percentage and seedling establishment in conditions of water stress--yet little is known about the trait This study will compare seeds from Plantago lanceolata, known as common plantain, that experience different habitat across the globe. The researcher will determine the frequency of this trait in dry habitats, its effect on seed germination, plant growth, and plant success under low and unpredictable water availability. This research will be conducted in collaboration with Dr. Zhenying Huang, an expert on seed mucilage at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and the Central Mongolian Field Station.Seed mucilage (myxospermy) is found in 230 genera of angiosperms and has been demonstrated to serve a variety of ecological functions including aid in dispersal and germination. There is a trade-off between seed number per fruit and mucilage in P. coronopus along a latitudinal gradient, suggesting that seed mucilage may be costly to produce and mitigate stressful environments (increased temperature and reduced precipitation). The researcher will use a common garden experiment to conduct an intraspecific study on myxospermy in P. lanceolata, a perennial species with a global distribution. The researcher will ask if seed mucilage increases germination and establishment of P. lanceolata under low and high osmotic stress. Through comparison of spatially dispersed populations, the researcher will determine whether seed mucilage production differs along a temperature or precipitation gradient. The researcher predicts that the seed to mucilage ratio will be greater in arid and highly stochastic environments where buffering may be needed. Another prediction is that seed mucilage will improve fitness when seeds are exposed to osmotic stress. This award, under the East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes program, supports summer research by a U.S. graduate student and is jointly funded by NSF and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology.

由于地球仪正在变暖，降雨量更难预测，因此确定使植物能够科普增加的水分胁迫的性状非常重要。有些种子可以产生一种凝胶状的覆盖物，其大小是种子的许多倍，当种子变湿时会膨胀。这种被称为粘液的功能特性可能是植物应对压力环境的一种重要方式-例如，通过增加种子发芽率和在水分胁迫条件下的幼苗建立-但对这种特性知之甚少。这项研究将比较来自车前草的种子，被称为普通车前草，在地球仪上经历不同的栖息地。 研究人员将确定这种特性在干燥生境中的频率，它对种子发芽，植物生长的影响，以及在低和不可预测的水资源可用性下的植物成功。这项研究将与中国科学院和蒙古中央野外工作站的种子粘液专家黄振英博士合作进行。种子粘液（粘种子）存在于230个被子植物属中，已被证明具有多种生态功能，包括帮助传播和萌发。 有一个权衡每果种子数和粘液在P. coronopus沿着纬度梯度，表明种子粘液可能是昂贵的生产和缓解压力环境（温度升高，降水减少）。研究者将利用一个普通的花园实验，对全球分布的多年生植物披针叶树的粘子现象进行种内研究。 研究者将探讨种子粘液是否能促进披针叶树在低渗和高渗胁迫下的萌发和定植。通过比较空间上分散的种群，研究人员将确定种子粘液的产生是否沿着温度或降水梯度而不同。研究人员预测，在干旱和高度随机的环境中，可能需要缓冲的种子与粘液的比例会更大。另一个预测是，当种子暴露于渗透胁迫时，种子粘液将改善适合度。该奖项是东亚和太平洋暑期研究所项目下的一个奖项，旨在支持美国研究生的暑期研究，由美国国家科学基金会和中国科技部共同资助。