Collaborative Research: Bees of the World - Phylogenomics, Biogeography, and Evolution of Host-Plant Associations

由于蜜蜂的授粉服务，它们对农业、粮食安全和自然生态系统的保护至关重要。地球上325,000种开花植物中有85%以上依赖动物授粉，其中绝大多数是由蜜蜂进行的。仅在美国，蜜蜂就负责130种农作物的商业生产，每年产生超过110亿美元的收入。蜜蜂对自然和人类福祉的价值是非常明显的。蜜蜂和开花植物之间的伙伴关系形成于1亿多年前，从那时起，蜜蜂已经辐射到全球各地，形成了惊人的20,000多个不同物种，其中许多是特定植物物种或家族的专业授粉者。迫切需要研究蜜蜂的生物多样性，因为越来越多的证据表明，一些蜜蜂物种正在减少，关于蜜蜂多样性、分布和家庭关系的基线知识还不完整。世界蜜蜂项目有可能显著提高对蜜蜂生物多样性的了解，并建立一个指南来解释蜜蜂的关键特征，如它们的寄主-植物关联。通过利用DNA测序技术的最新进展，将首次生成一棵全面的蜜蜂生命树，为研究蜜蜂多样性及其与植物的关系提供一个框架。为了传播成果和蜜蜂常识，该项目将与专业和非专业受众开展多项外展工作。活动包括创建虚拟蜜蜂课程，教授分子方法研讨会，并与犹他州自然历史博物馆合作，开发展品和以传粉者为重点的青年教育活动。该项目将使用尖端分子和分析方法，并参与全球合作者网络，为蜜蜂组装全面的系统基因组数据集。该项目的目标是：(1)解决更高层次的蜜蜂系统发育和分类中的剩余不确定性；(2)纳入化石以重建蜜蜂的全球生物地理历史，揭示蜜蜂多样性的起源和传播；(3)分析蜜蜂之间寄主植物的使用模式和较低分类水平上的目标分支，揭示寄主植物专门化是如何演变的，并影响蜜蜂的多样化比率。为了更有信心地解决蜜蜂的系统发育问题，研究小组将使用下一代DNA测序方法和新的实验室方法对全球各地的蜜蜂物种进行测序。该项目将为大多数蜜蜂属生成低覆盖率的基因组，并为3000多个物种生成超辐射元素(UCE)数据，填补采样空白。由此产生的蜜蜂系统发育将成为研究蜜蜂分类、生物地理学和寄主植物进化的框架。将建立蜜蜂化石、分布和寄主植物信息的综合数据库，并向其他研究人员提供。结合项目每个组成部分的结果，将全面了解蜜蜂如何随着时间的推移而多样化和分散，以及它们与植物的合作伙伴关系如何塑造它们的进化轨迹。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Bees are vitally important to agriculture, food security, and the preservation of natural ecosystems due to their pollination services. Over 85% of the 325,000 flowering plant species on the planet depend on animal pollination and the vast majority is carried out by bees. In the U.S.A. alone bees are responsible for the commercial production of 130 crop plants, generating over $11 billion in annual revenue. The value of bees to nature and human well-being is abundantly clear. The partnership between bees and flowering plants formed over 100 million years ago, and since that time, bees have radiated globally into an astounding 20,000+ different species, many of which are specialist pollinators of particular plant species or families. The study of bee biodiversity is urgently needed because there is growing evidence that some bee species are in decline and baseline knowledge of bee diversity, distribution, and family relationships is incomplete. The Bees of the World project has the potential to significantly improve knowledge of bee biodiversity and to establish a guide to interpret key traits of bees, such as their host-plant associations. By utilizing recent advances in DNA sequencing technology, a comprehensive tree-of-life for bees will be generated for the first time, providing a framework from which to study bee diversity and their relationships with plants. To disseminate results and general bee knowledge, the project will engage in multiple outreach efforts with professional and non-professional audiences. Activities include creation of a virtual bee course, teaching of a molecular methods workshop, and, in collaboration with the Natural History Museum of Utah, development of exhibits and youth education activities focused on pollinators.The project will use cutting edge molecular and analytical methods and engage a global network of collaborators to assemble a comprehensive phylogenomic dataset for bees. The project aims are to: (1) resolve remaining uncertainties in higher-level bee phylogeny and classification, (2) incorporate fossils to reconstruct the global biogeographic history of bees, revealing the origin and spread of bee diversity over time, and (3) analyze patterns of host-plant use across bees and for targeted clades at lower taxonomic levels, revealing how host-plant specialization has evolved and impacted rates of diversification in bees. To resolve the phylogeny of bees with improved confidence, the research team will use next-generation DNA sequencing approaches and novel laboratory methods to sequence bee species from across the globe. The project will generate low coverage genomes for most bee genera and ultraconserved element (UCE) data for over 3,000 species, filling in sampling gaps. The resulting bee phylogeny will serve as a framework to study bee classification, biogeography, and host-plant evolution. Comprehensive databases of bee fossil, distribution, and host-plant information will be created and made available to other researchers. Combining results from each component of the project will provide a comprehensive understanding of how bees have diversified and dispersed over time and how their partnership with plants has shaped their evolutionary trajectory.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.