Coordination Funds

植物掌握的最显著的挑战之一是5亿多年前发生的从水到陆地的转变(植物赤道化)。栖息地的这种变化需要分子适应来应对一系列新的压力。植物地化改变了地球的大气层和土壤覆盖，为我们所知的地球生命做好了准备。沼泽藻类包括链藻和陆地植物(胚藻门)三个谱系。最早的陆地植物从链状植物内部进化而来，获得了气孔和角质层等特征，并利用真菌共生获得营养。这些特征被认为有助于植物生命的栖息地转变。起初，形态简单的植物进化出一种复杂性，使它们能够征服更多的栖息地。在马德兰，我们使用比较和功能进化的方法，以链藻和非种子植物为模型，研究支持对陆地条件的戏剧性环境适应和植物复杂性进化的遗传机制。在Madland的第一个资助期，我们已经明确了植物形态、生理、生物化学、细胞生物学和生物相互作用适应性进化的重要遗传机制，并确定了陆地植物多样性进化的祖先。现在，在第二个阶段，我们将在现在建立的新资源的帮助下，根据链霉菌的多样性来仔细审查这些遗传机制。这些数据将被用来推断所有陆地植物以及陆地植物及其藻类近亲共有的最新共同祖先的特性。在马德兰，我们将解决植物进化中的关键问题：哪些特征使征服链藻进化的土地成为可能？(I)现存的所有陆地植物和(Ii)陆地植物和藻类的最新共同祖先的性质是什么？在早期陆地植物进化中，分子适应的演替和性质是什么？胚胎发生和世代交替是如何进化的？植物与真菌和细菌的有机相互作用是如何进化的？对非生物和生物胁迫的耐受性的分子进化驱动因素是什么？我们将利用广泛的生物学方法和交叉学科的知识，从系统发育、分子、生理、遗传和细胞生物学角度来研究生物相互作用和生物多样性，研究以下主要非种子植物谱系的代表：(A)新兴模式系统Chara braunii(Charopyhceae)、Spirogyra pratensis、Mesotaum endlicherianum和Zygnema coparcarinata(Zygnematophyceae)、Anthoceros agrestis(Hornwort)、Riccia flititans(Liveropteris Ceratopdii)和满江红(Azolla Fitoides)；(B)已建立的模式系统Marchantia poloma(Liverwort)和Physcomitrium patens(苔藓)。

One of the most remarkable challenges mastered by plants was the water-to-land-transition (plant terrestrialisation) that occurred more than 500 million years ago. This change in habitat required molecular adaptations to cope with an array of new stresses. Plant terrestrialisation transformed Earth’s atmosphere and soil cover, priming Earth for life as we know it. The Phragmoplastophyta comprise three lineages of streptophyte algae and the land plants (Embryophyta). Evolving from within the streptophytes, the earliest land plants gained features such as stomata as well as the cuticle and made use of fungal symbioses to gain access to nutrients. These traits are thought to have been instrumental for the habitat transition of plant life. Initially morphologically simple plants evolved a complexity that allowed them to conquer ever more habitats. In MAdLand, we use a comparative and functional evolutionary approach, encompassing streptophyte algae and non-seed plants as models, to study the genetic mechanisms underpinning the dramatic environmental adaptation to conditions on land and the evolution of plant complexity. During the first funding period of MAdLand, we already pinpointed important genetic mechanisms in adaptive evolution of plant morphology, physiology, biochemistry, cell biology and biotic interactions – and identified the ancestry of processes from which the diversity of land plants evolved. Now, in the second period, we will scrutinise these genetic mechanisms in light of streptophyte diversification with the aid of the new resources now established. These data will be used to infer properties of the most recent common ancestors of all land plants as well as those shared by land plants and their algal relatives. In MAdLand, we will address key questions in plant evolution: Which features enabling the conquest of land evolved in streptophyte algae? What is the nature of the most recent common ancestor of (i) all extant land plants and (ii) of land plants and algae? What is the succession and nature of molecular adaptations in early land plant evolution? How did embryogenesis and the alternation of generations evolve? How did organismic interaction of plants with fungi and bacteria evolve? What are the molecular evolutionary drivers of tolerance to abiotic and biotic stresses? Using a broad suite of biological methods and cross-discipline knowledge ranging from phylogenetic, molecular, physiological, genetic and cell biological approaches to the study of organismic interaction and biodiversity, we will study the following representatives of major non-seed plant lineages: (a) emerging model system Chara braunii (Charopyhceae), Spirogyra pratensis, Mesotaenium endlicherianum, and Zygnema circumcarinatum (Zygnematophyceae), Anthoceros agrestis (hornwort), Riccia fluitans (liverwort) Ceratopteris richardii, and Azolla filiculoides (ferns); the (b) established model systems Marchantia polymorpha (liverwort) and Physcomitrium patens (moss).