SG: Phylogeny, Biogeography, and Revision of Lobelia in the Mexican Transition Zone

SG：墨西哥过渡区半边莲的系统发育、生物地理学和修正

• 批准号: 2242589
• 负责人: Tina Ayers
• 金额: $ 19.41万
• 依托单位: Northern Arizona University
• 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: 2023-07-01 至 2025-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2242589&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SG; Phylogeny; Biogeography; Revision; Lobelia

The five major mountain ranges in Mexico called the Mexican Transition Zone provide a unique opportunity to study the relationships of closely related species that are restricted to a single range. These mountains are a transition zone because they have a mix of organisms from the temperate parts of the Americas as well as from the tropics. The target organism for the project will be the plant genus Lobelia. There are 90 species in the mountains of Mexico and, of those, 83 are found only there. Most of the species have small, blue flowers and are insect-pollinated, but six have large, red flowers that are hummingbird-pollinated. Both groups have species with a unique floral feature, a nectar spur, found nowhere else in the world. This project will reconstruct the evolutionary relationships of the Mexican Lobelias to investigate how they are related to each other and to species in other parts of North and South America and will help determine whether hummingbird pollination and nectar spurs have evolved independently multiple times. First generation and underserved graduate and undergraduate students will be trained in molecular techniques and museum studies. The research will strengthen international collaborations among a Mexican specialist with intimate knowledge of the species from field work, students, and researchers. Outreach materials will be developed collaboratively and incorporated into a permanent public display and showcased at a booth at Louisiana State University’s monthly Night at the Museum event. Specimens collected and discoveries made will also be incorporated into courses taught at Northern Arizona University.Molecular data gathered from chloroplast genomes and a nuclear probe set developed for a closely related group will be used to build a comprehensive phylogenetic framework for the plant genus Lobelia, focusing on the highly diverse and endemic lineages of Mexico. This framework will be used to answer broad evolutionary questions about biogeography, pollinator shifts, and hybridization. A time-calibrated tree will also be produced to test specific biogeographic hypotheses in the Mexican Transition Zone including: 1- geographic barriers between lineages, 2- long-distance dispersal between mountain ranges, and 3- biogeographic patterns associated with pollination syndrome or presence of nectar spurs. The revisionary work produced by this collaboration and multiple undergraduates will include publicly available descriptions, images, photos, and an interactive web key to all Lobelia species in Mexico and Central America, all of which will serve as a resource for current and future floristic inventories.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.

墨西哥的五大山脉被称为墨西哥过渡区，为研究仅限于一个山脉的密切相关物种的关系提供了独特的机会。这些山脉是一个过渡地带，因为它们混合了来自美洲温带地区和热带地区的生物。该项目的目标生物将是半边莲属植物。在墨西哥的山区有90个物种，其中83个只在那里发现。大多数物种有小的，蓝色的花朵，是昆虫授粉，但六个有大的，红色的花朵，是蜂鸟授粉。这两个群体都有一个独特的花卉特征，花蜜刺，在世界其他地方找不到。该项目将重建墨西哥半边莲的进化关系，以调查它们如何相互关联以及与北美和南美其他地区的物种的关系，并将有助于确定蜂鸟授粉和花蜜刺是否独立进化多次。第一代和服务不足的研究生和本科生将接受分子技术和博物馆研究的培训。这项研究将加强墨西哥专家之间的国际合作，他们对实地工作，学生和研究人员的物种有着深入的了解。外联材料将合作开发，并纳入一个永久的公共展览，并在路易斯安那州州立大学的每月在博物馆活动之夜的摊位上展出。收集的标本和发现也将纳入北方亚利桑那大学教授的课程。从叶绿体基因组收集的分子数据和为一个密切相关的群体开发的核探针集将用于建立植物半边莲属的全面系统发育框架，重点关注墨西哥高度多样性和地方性的谱系。该框架将用于回答有关生物地理学、传粉者转变和杂交的广泛进化问题。一个时间校准树也将产生测试特定的地理假设在墨西哥过渡区，包括：1-地理障碍之间的血统，2-长距离传播山脉之间，和3-与授粉综合征或花蜜刺的存在相关的地理模式。这项合作和多名本科生制作的修订工作将包括公开的描述，图像，照片和墨西哥和中美洲所有半边莲物种的交互式网络密钥，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的评估来支持。影响审查标准。