Collaborative Research: Diversity of Physcomitrium pyriforme in North America and Europe: significance of autopolyploidy within a phylogenomic and experimental framework

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This project will investigate the effects of genome duplication in plants. Many plant species, including some agricultural crops, have arisen as a result of genome duplication. This natural event results in offspring having genomes that are doubled in content or more as compared to their parents and may have provided opportunities for innovation during plant evolution. However, the short- and long-term consequences of genome duplication in wild plants are not well understood. This research will investigate the natural rate of genome duplication in a wild moss species distributed in North America and Europe. Researchers will create experimental, genome-duplicated offspring in the laboratory to measure how their morphology and reproduction differs from that of their parents. They will then determine if and how duplicated genomes may change over time by comparing the experimental, genome-duplicated offspring to those that occur naturally. Researchers will train undergraduate and graduate students, including members of under-represented groups, and support the professional development of early-career researchers. They will also host regional outreach lectures for K-12 teachers about best-practices in evolutionary biology education. Researchers will engage the public online using the citizen-science iNaturalist platform and will create bilingual (Spanish/English) blog posts about moss biology and polyploid evolution. This project will expand our understanding of the consequences of autopolyploid evolution in plants. Researchers will use as an experimental model organism the moss species Physcomitrium pyriforme (Funariaceae, the Funaria moss family), which harbors a morphologically-diverse complex of seven karyotypes worldwide. The species is annual, bisexual, selfing, and is easily grown in the laboratory. Unlike most other plant model organisms, its genome content can be doubled with precision in vitro to create autopolyploid offspring. Researchers will compare reproductive barriers among naturally-occurring and artificially-induced autopolyploids as well as their homoploid progenitors. Project outcomes will include a phylogeny of the Physcomitrium pyriforme species-complex based on genome sequence data, an estimate of ploidy changes within the complex over evolutionary time and among populations today, and the description of new species. Researchers will further develop the HybPiper bioinformatics data analysis platform and train other US scientists in this method to enhance research capacity. The project will strengthen research collaborations among US institutions and build natural-history collections.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.