BRC-BIO: Understanding the Role of Species Interactions in Evolutionary Radiations Through the Evolution of Non-flying Mammal Pollination in the Iconic Plant Genus Protea

植物和传粉者之间的相互作用影响了花的许多形状。昆虫是最常见的传粉者，但许多植物依赖于其他动物，如鸟类和蝙蝠。在极少数情况下，啮齿动物或其他非飞行哺乳动物作为植物的授粉者。南非的糖灌木使用许多不同的传粉者，包括不会飞行的哺乳动物。由啮齿动物授粉的甜灌木物种在重要方面不同于由鸟类授粉的甜灌木物种。它们有不同的气味，不同的微生物协会，和不同的花定位。该项目将对南非的甘蔗进行采样，以确定物种之间的进化关系，并研究允许非飞行哺乳动物授粉进化的特征和环境条件。这项工作将使本科研究人员参与国际实地经验和科学思想的跨文化交流。此外，学生将参与生物学和社会工作之间的跨学科思想分享，该地区拥有丰富的植物和人类多样性。该项目的结果将使人们更深入地了解物种之间的相互作用如何促进生物多样性，并有助于预测这些复杂的系统如何应对正在发生的全球变化。关于物种间的相互作用在进化辐射中的作用，人们知之甚少。该项目将有助于了解导致Protea非飞行哺乳动物授粉进化的条件及其作为这种辐射多样化的潜在驱动力的作用。首先，这项工作将增加采样Protea物种的分类广度，并使重建更强大的物种关系的理解。其次，对物种关系的更好理解将使研究人员能够估计授粉状态在进化过程中变化的频率。研究人员还将重建亚支的祖先授粉状态，并估计授粉者转移的速度。最后，花和整株性状的数据将与环境数据相结合，以评估向非飞行哺乳动物授粉转变的总体模式。这项工作将使用一个迷人的适应在一个标志性的辐射，以了解物种的相互作用，在地球上最具生物多样性的地区之一，在产生多样性的作用。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得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的支持。

Interactions between plants and pollinators influence many ways in which flowers are shaped. Insects are the most common living pollinators, but many plants rely on other animals like birds and bats. In rare cases rodents or other non-flying mammals serve as pollinators to plants. The South African proteas, or sugarbushes, use many different pollinators, including non-flying mammals. Sugarbush species pollinated by rodents are different from sugarbush species pollinated by birds in important ways. They have different scents, different microbial associations, and different flower positioning. This project will sample sugarbushes in South Africa to determine the evolutionary relationships among species and to examine the traits and environmental circumstances that allowed non-flying mammal pollination to evolve. The work will engage undergraduate researchers in international field experiences and cross-cultural exchange of scientific ideas. Further, students will participate in cross-disciplinary sharing of ideas between biology and social work in a region that is rich in both plant and human diversity. Results from this project will provide a deeper understanding of how species interactions contribute to biodiversity and can help to predict how these complex systems may respond to undergoing global change. Little is known about the role of species interactions in contributing to evolutionary radiations. This project will help to understand the conditions that led to the evolution of non-flying mammal pollination in Protea and its role as a potential driver of diversification in this radiation. First, the work will increase the taxonomic breadth of sampled Protea species and enable the reconstruction of a more robust understanding of species relationships. Second, the improved understanding of species relationships will allow researchers to estimate how often pollination states changed over evolutionary time. Researchers will also reconstruct the ancestral pollination states of subclades and estimate the rate at which pollinator shifts have occurred. Finally, data on floral and whole-plant traits will be combined with environmental data to assess overall patterns of shifts to non-flying mammal pollination. This work will use a fascinating adaptation in an iconic radiation to understand the role of species interactions in generating diversity in one of the most biodiverse regions on Earth.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.