BRC-BIO: The transcriptomics of environmentally-controlled differentiation into male or female in plants

BRC-BIO：植物中环境控制分化为雄性或雌性的转录组学

• 批准号: 2217891
• 负责人: Jennifer Blake-Mahmud
• 金额: $ 50.14万
• 依托单位: Hope College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-01-01 至 2025-12-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2217891&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: BRC; BIO; transcriptomics; environmentally; controlled

Plants reproduce via male and female functions much like animals do. Differently from animals, however, most plants (~90%) combine male and female function in one individual. Even though less than 10% of plant species have separate males and females, this plant mating system has evolved repeatedly in the history of green plants and provides an opportunity to understand its evolution. Moreover, many economically important crops have separate males and females, and often the male or the female is more valuable than the other (e.g., female holly, male gingko), and they can be difficult to distinguish before maturity. In other situations, keeping males and females separate and stable (e.g., female Cannabis, female hops) is necessary to maintain the quality of a product. Despite the importance of this aspect of plant biology economically we know little about factors that determine this expression in plants. This project will research a special group of plants that exhibit separate males and females – those for which the environment controls the expression of male or female function. Chromosomes that determine male or female flower types are rare in plants and species where the environment plays a strong role have the ability to express either male or female flowers, and change from one to the other, during their lives. Changes in gene expression is the most likely mechanism controlling this phenotype in these species thus, this study examines the relationship between gene expression and floral development in maples and makes comparisons to other plant species with different plant mating systems. Understanding more about how gene expression relates to expression of male versus female flowers will help make more economical decisions and plan for population stability in the face of climate change. This project also involves the development of Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences that include both field elements and training in modern genetic techniques and analysis. It also involves local outreach with a focus on evolutionary biology.Historically several mechanisms that determine male versus female function in organisms has been categorized: genetic, social, temperature dependent, and environmental. This division has resulted in primarily ecologically-based research of species with suspected environmental determination and reinforced a false dichotomy between genetics and environment. This project investigates the transcriptomic underpinnings of environmentally-based plasticity in floral function and seeks answers to the following questions. 1. Are there differences in the amount and kind of gene expression associated with the expression of floral type? 2. To what extent does the transcriptome change during floral development? 3. How similar is the transcriptomic profile of species with this plasticity in comparison to other species? Is it more similar to those exhibiting dioecy or monoecy? Through this work new understanding of how gene activation and activity responds to the environment to shape floral phenotype will obtain. This understanding is becoming more critical with a changing climate. Furthermore, the proposed research addresses long-held questions on the evolution of plant mating systems. Although environmental control of floral phenotype is frequently mentioned as a potential pathway to dioecy, no studies have explored how transcriptomically similar these species are to those with monoecious or dioecious mating systems. This inhibits our understanding of the route to dioecy, a major and repeated evolutionary transition in plants. Similar evolutionary transitions in animals happened too infrequently and too far back in evolutionary time to facilitate experimental investigation, so if we wish to understand how and why females and males originated, our best chance may reside in the study of 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.

植物像动物一样通过雄性和雌性功能繁殖。然而，与动物不同的是，大多数植物（约 90%）在一个个体中结合了雄性和雌性功能。尽管只有不到 10% 的植物物种具有独立的雄性和雌性，但这种植物交配系统在绿色植物的历史中反复进化，并为了解其进化提供了机会。此外，许多经济上重要的作物都有单独的雄性和雌性，并且通常雄性或雌性比另一种更有价值（例如，雌性冬青、雄性银杏），并且在成熟前很难区分它们。在其他情况下，保持雄性和雌性分开且稳定（例如雌性大麻、雌性啤酒花）对于维持产品质量是必要的。尽管植物生物学的这一方面在经济上很重要，但我们对决定植物中这种表达的因素知之甚少。该项目将研究一组特殊的植物，它们表现出独立的雄性和雌性，即环境控制雄性或雌性功能表达的植物。 决定雄花或雌花类型的染色体在环境发挥重要作用的植物和物种中很少见，它们能够表达雄花或雌花，并在其一生中从一种花转变为另一种花。基因表达的变化是控制这些物种中这种表型的最可能的机制，因此，本研究检查了枫树中基因表达和花发育之间的关系，并与具有不同植物交配系统的其他植物物种进行了比较。更多地了解基因表达与雄花和雌花表达之间的关系将有助于在面对气候变化时做出更经济的决策和种群稳定性规划。该项目还涉及基于课程的本科生研究经验的开发，其中包括现代遗传技术和分析的现场要素和培训。它还涉及以进化生物学为重点的本地推广。历史上决定生物体中雄性与雌性功能的几种机制已被分类为：遗传、社会、温度依赖性和环境。这种划分导致了对疑似环境决定的物种进行主要基于生态的研究，并强化了遗传学与环境之间的错误二分法。 该项目研究花功能中基于环境的可塑性的转录组学基础，并寻求以下问题的答案。 1. 与花型表达相关的基因表达量和种类是否存在差异？ 2. 花发育过程中转录组变化有多大？ 3. 与其他物种相比，具有这种可塑性的物种的转录组谱有多相似？它与表现出雌雄同株还是雌雄同株的更相似？通过这项工作，我们将获得对基因激活和活性如何响应环境以塑造花表型的新认识。随着气候的变化，这种理解变得更加重要。此外，拟议的研究解决了有关植物交配系统进化的长期存在的问题。尽管花表型的环境控制经常被提及作为雌雄异株的潜在途径，但没有研究探讨这些物种在转录组学上与雌雄同株或雌雄异体交配系统的物种有多么相似。这阻碍了我们对雌雄异株途径的理解，雌雄异株是植物中一个主要且重复的进化转变。动物中类似的进化转变发生得太少，而且在进化史上太早，无法进行实验研究，因此，如果我们希望了解雌性和雄性起源的方式和原因，我们最好的机会可能在于对植物的研究。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。