SG: Phylogenomics, chromosome evolution, and diversification of the sundews, a group of carnivorous plants

茅膏菜（茅膏菜）是大约250种食肉植物，分布在世界各地，大多数物种分布在暖温带和热带地区。这种植物捕捉和消化昆虫猎物的能力长期以来一直吸引着公众和植物学家。除了这些植物不寻常的获取营养的方法外，茅膏菜似乎还具有显着的染色体数量和结构差异，但由于需要活体和先进的显微镜技术来评估这些特征，因此缺乏大规模的调查。该项目将利用研究人员可获得的广泛的毛毡苔活体收集，以及有针对性的收集工作，调查许多毛毡苔物种的染色体数量和基因组大小，以及植物生长的环境条件。研究人员还将使用基因组数据重建毛毡苔的进化历史，使他们能够评估该组的染色体进化和栖息地特化的历史以及它们在推动多样化方面的作用。该项目将为本科生和研究生提供研究培训，并将为早期职业研究人员提供合作。此外，研究人员将为一年级本科生和K-12学生提供实践教育模块。他们还将收集一批活的毛毡苔，这些毛毡苔将通过明尼苏达大学生物科学学院用于研究、教学和公众访问。一个多层次的数据集将被生成，用于重建毛毡苔染色体进化的历史，并测试染色体数目变异和谱系多样化之间的宏观进化联系。将使用转录组和Hyb-Seq数据的组合，通过对该属250个物种中的至少80%进行采样来估计物种关系。将获得至少40%的茅膏菜物种的染色体数目和基因组大小数据，并将使用免疫染色来确定该属15个物种的着丝粒类型，据认为该类型在毛毡苔属中差异很大。此外，将从公开的标本数据库中汇编物种出现数据，以便能够重建气候生态位和土壤特性。研究人员将使用最先进的方法进行基因组数据分析，以模拟染色体变化，并在基因组中对数百个基因进行采样，以确定全基因组重复和单个染色体获得和丢失事件的位置。该项目不仅将使随后的调查，染色体进化的机制在茅膏菜，但它也将建立一个严格的分析框架，比较分析染色体进化的整个生命树。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得支持的评估使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

The sundews (Drosera) are approximately 250 species of carnivorous plants distributed worldwide, with most species found in warm temperate and tropical regions. The plants’ ability to catch and digest insect prey has long fascinated the public as well as botanists. In addition to these plants’ unusual method of acquiring nutrients, sundews also appear to possess striking variation in chromosome number and structure, but large-scale surveys are lacking owing to the need for living organisms and advanced microscopy techniques to evaluate these features. This project will take advantage of extensive living collections of sundews available to the researchers, as well as targeted collecting efforts, to survey the chromosome numbers and genome size of numerous sundew species, as well as the environmental conditions in which the plants grow. Researchers will also reconstruct the evolutionary history of the sundews using phylogenomic data, allowing them to evaluate the history of chromosome evolution and habitat specialization in this group and their role in driving diversification. This project will provide research training for undergraduate and graduate students and will enable the development of collaborations for an early-career researcher. In addition, the researchers will deliver hands-on educational modules for first-year undergraduate students and K-12 students. They will also assemble a living collection of sundews that will be available through the College of Biological Sciences Conservatory at the University of Minnesota for research, teaching, and public access.A multi-layered dataset will be generated for reconstructing the history of chromosomal evolution of the sundews and to test the macroevolutionary link between chromosome number variation and lineage diversification. Species relationships will be estimated by sampling at least 80% of the 250 species in the genus using a combination of transcriptome and Hyb-Seq data. Chromosome number and genome size data will be obtained for at least 40% of sundew species, and immunostaining will be used to determine the centromere type, which is thought to vary substantially in Drosera, in 15 species across the genus. Additionally, species occurrence data will be compiled from publicly available specimen databases to enable reconstruction of climatic niche and soil characteristics. The researchers will use state-of-the-art methods in phylogenomic data analysis to model chromosome changes, combined with sampling hundreds of genes across the genome to determine the placement of whole genome duplication and single chromosome gain and loss events. This project will not only enable subsequent investigations into the mechanisms of chromosome evolution in sundews, but it will also establish a rigorous analytical framework for comparative analyses of chromosome evolution across the tree of life.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.