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The Ecology of Cloning

克隆的生态学

基本信息

批准号：
1850837
负责人：
Jonathan Allen
金额：
$ 24.66万
依托单位：
College of William and Mary
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2019
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2019-06-01 至 2023-05-31
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1850837&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
Ecology Cloning

项目摘要

The recruitment of new individuals into marine communities is critical to determine community structure and yet, many basic parts of the life histories of marine invertebrates remain poorly described. Much of the understanding of the recruitment of marine invertebrates is based on theories centered on per-offspring investment, the dispersal of offspring in the ocean, and the survival of offspring during development. A major, largely neglected, area of research of the recruitment of marine invertebrates is the potential for asexual propagation of offspring during the embryonic and/or larval stages, also called cloning. Cloning is widely known to occur in diverse marine taxa, but the ecological consequences of this phenomenon are poorly understood. This project examines the ecology of cloning in Echinoderms, the taxon in which it is most widely reported. The work identifies the environmental triggers of cloning and tests the consequences of cloning at different stages in the life cycle. The work also trains undergraduate students, K-5 students and adult learners through research experiences, school presentations, and short courses in Maine and Virginia. This project systematically evaluates inducers and consequences of cloning in multiple species from two temperate coastal habitats. Specifically, the work addresses two primary questions: 1) What are the environmental inducers of cloning and how likely are cloning events to occur in nature? 2) What are the consequences of cloning events for the recruitment of echinoderms into benthic communities? Current understanding of the initiation of cloning suggests that multiple stressors can induce cloning. Yet potential inducers have only rarely been investigated in a systematic fashion and never across multiple species within habitats or across habitats. The current project does both, assessing the potential for variation in biotic (algal food cues and predator cues) and abiotic (temperature, pH and salinity) parameters to induce cloning events in seven species of temperate echinoderms from two coastal areas (the Gulf of Maine and the Salish Sea). In addition to identifying inducers of cloning, very little is known about the fates of clones or the primary larvae that produce them, and therefore the ecological importance of this developmental phenomenon is a black box. As part of answering this second question, the investigators track the fates of clones that are generated at three different life stages (zygotic clones, early larval clones and late larval clones) to metamorphosis and beyond to determine the potential contribution of cloning to juvenile recruitment. By tracking the fates of clones to metamorphosis and in the weeks immediately following metamorphosis, when the vast majority of mortality occurs, they can estimate the degree to which cloning may be a viable developmental pathway for marine invertebrates.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.

海洋群落招募新个体对于确定群落结构至关重要，然而，海洋无脊椎动物生命史的许多基本部分仍然缺乏描述。对海洋无脊椎动物补充的大部分理解都是基于以每个后代投资、后代在海洋中的分散以及后代在发育过程中的生存为中心的理论。海洋无脊椎动物招募的一个主要但在很大程度上被忽视的研究领域是在胚胎和/或幼虫阶段后代无性繁殖的潜力，也称为克隆。众所周知，克隆发生在多种海洋类群中，但人们对这种现象的生态后果知之甚少。该项目研究了棘皮动物中克隆的生态学，棘皮动物是这一分类单元中报道最广泛的。这项工作确定了克隆的环境触发因素，并测试了克隆在生命周期不同阶段的后果。这项工作还通过缅因州和弗吉尼亚州的研究经验、学校演示和短期课程来培训本科生、K-5 学生和成人学习者。该项目系统地评估了两个温带沿海栖息地的多个物种克隆的诱导因素和后果。具体来说，这项工作解决了两个主要问题：1）克隆的环境诱导因素是什么？克隆事件在自然界发生的可能性有多大？ 2）克隆事件对棘皮动物招募到底栖群落的后果是什么？目前对克隆起始的理解表明，多种压力源可以诱导克隆。然而，潜在的诱导剂很少以系统的方式进行研究，也从未在栖息地内或跨栖息地的多个物种中进行研究。当前的项目同时进行这两项工作，评估生物（藻类食物线索和捕食者线索）和非生物（温度、pH 和盐度）参数变化的潜力，以诱导来自两个沿海地区（缅因湾和萨利什海）的七种温带棘皮动物的克隆事件。除了识别克隆诱导剂之外，人们对克隆或产生克隆的初级幼虫的命运知之甚少，因此这种发育现象的生态重要性是一个黑匣子。作为回答第二个问题的一部分，研究人员追踪了在三个不同生命阶段（合子克隆、早期幼虫克隆和晚期幼虫克隆）产生的克隆到变态及之后的命运，以确定克隆对幼虫招募的潜在贡献。通过跟踪克隆到变态的命运以及在变态后的几周内（当绝大多数死亡发生时），他们可以估计克隆可能在多大程度上成为海洋无脊椎动物可行的发育途径。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。