Collaborative Research: Disentangling biological and environmental drivers of diversification in the Andean flora

合作研究：解开安第斯植物区系多样化的生物和环境驱动因素

• 批准号: 2055466
• 负责人: Rosana Zenil-Ferguson
• 金额: $ 43.14万
• 依托单位: University of Hawaii
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-08-01 至 2023-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2055466&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Disentangling; biological; environmental

The tropical Andes of South America is one of the world’s richest biodiversity hotspots. This diversity likely evolved due to the complex environmental and geological history of this region. However, exactly how plant diversity arose from the combination of mountain uplift, the development of new habitats, and species interactions is unclear. This research aims to understand how these factors led to plant diversity in cloud forests and high-elevation grasslands. The researchers will develop new software to compare plant genomes to understand the ancestry of four groups of flowering plants in the Andes. The project will also result in new mathematical models to test the importance of different factors in shaping diversity in these plant groups. These new methods will have broad application to studies of biodiversity in the Andes and beyond. Additionally, this project aims to train the next generation of scientists in the study of biodiversity through a variety of interrelated activities, including: (1) a course for undergraduates to do guided genomic research; (2) collaborative training for students; and (3) computational training for diverse students.The project will first establish well-supported phylogenetic hypotheses for each of the four focal clades of Andean plants using low-coverage and targeted genome sequence data. Samples will be collected from Colombia as well as museums. This work highlights the importance of natural history collections in cutting-edge biological research, and new fieldwork will add to those collections. A component of the research will be to develop new approaches to address complexities common in plant genomes, including polyploidy and paralogy, that can affect estimates of evolutionary relationships. These methods will be made available through open-source software such that other researchers can easily estimate phylogenies and examine support for phylogenetic hypotheses using sequence data. Second, the project will develop new models that jointly infer the roles of dispersal and trait evolution in species diversification. These methods will be applied to phylogenomic, morphological, and distribution data collected for this project. These methods will also be made publicly available for widespread use. Finally, by comparing the roles of biogeographic and ecological processes in generating diversity in these clades, the research will address the generality or idiosyncrasy of the processes facilitating rapid radiation in tropical Andean plants.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.

南美洲的热带安第斯山脉是世界上生物多样性最丰富的热点地区之一。这种多样性可能是由于该地区复杂的环境和地质历史而演变的。然而，植物多样性究竟是如何在山脉隆起、新栖息地的发展和物种相互作用的共同作用下产生的，目前尚不清楚。这项研究旨在了解这些因素如何导致云雾森林和高海拔草原的植物多样性。研究人员将开发新软件来比较植物基因组，以了解安第斯山脉四类开花植物的祖先。该项目还将产生新的数学模型，以测试不同因素在塑造这些植物群体多样性方面的重要性。这些新方法将广泛应用于安第斯山脉及其他地区的生物多样性研究。此外，该项目旨在通过各种相互关联的活动来培训下一代科学家进行生物多样性研究，包括：（1）为本科生提供引导基因组研究的课程； （2）学生协同训练； (3) 针对不同学生的计算培训。该项目将首先利用低覆盖率和目标基因组序列数据，为安第斯植物的四个焦点分支中的每一个建立得到充分支持的系统发育假设。样品将从哥伦比亚和博物馆收集。这项工作强调了自然历史收藏在尖端生物学研究中的重要性，并且新的实地工作将增加这些收藏。该研究的一个组成部分将是开发新方法来解决植物基因组中常见的复杂性，包括可能影响进化关系估计的多倍体和旁系同源性。这些方法将通过开源软件提供，以便其他研究人员可以轻松估计系统发育并使用序列数据检查对系统发育假设的支持。其次，该项目将开发新模型，共同推断扩散和性状进化在物种多样化中的作用。这些方法将应用于为本项目收集的系统发育、形态学和分布数据。这些方法也将公开供广泛使用。最后，通过比较生物地理和生态过程在这些分支中产生多样性的作用，该研究将解决促进热带安第斯植物快速辐射过程的普遍性或特殊性。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。