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400 Million Years of Food Transport in Plants: unearthing the origin, diversity and genetic toolkit of vasculature

植物中 4 亿年的食物运输：挖掘脉管系统的起源、多样性和遗传工具包

基本信息

批准号：
MR/T018585/1
负责人：
Alexander Hetherington
金额：
$ 138.75万
依托单位：
University of Edinburgh
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Fellowship
财政年份：
2020
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2020 至无数据
项目状态：
未结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=MR%2FT018585%2F1
关键词：
400 Million Years Food Transport

项目摘要

Distribution of water, mineral nutrients and food throughout the plant is carried out using an internal plumbing system made up of two highly specialised tissues - xylem and phloem. The acquisition of these specialised tissues during plant evolution was one of the key innovations that allowed plants to evolve from tiny moss-like species into the towering trees and the diversity of crop species that dominate the landscape today. The xylem and phloem are intimately linked, but functionally different, with the xylem transporting water and the phloem transporting food throughout the plant. All economically important plants, whether crop or forest species, rely on the transport of food, in the form of sugars, through the phloem. However, despite the key role that the phloem plays in all parts of plant life, we do not know how the structure and function of the phloem will change, or can be engineered to respond, to future climate change. A vital line of evidence for predicting how the phloem will likely change in the future is preserved in the previously unexplored fossil record of plants that lived through prehistoric episodes of global climate change, and extremes of atmospheric CO2. The aim of the proposed research is to investigate key unanswered questions about the evolution of the phloem, one of the most important but least well understood plant tissues. I will transform our knowledge of phloem evolution by tackling three overarching questions: (i) when did the phloem originate, (ii) how has its structure, function and genetic toolkit evolved over the past 400 million years, (iii) how has phloem evolution been driven by climate change? To answer these questions I will combine cutting-edge 3D imaging of fossils, computational modelling of phloem function never before undertaken with fossils, and comparative genomic analyses of living plants. To answer these key questions I have identified three objectives for the Fellowship:1. Define the origin of the phloem in land plants2. Reveal major evolutionary innovations in phloem structure and function in relation to climatic change through geological time.3. Characterise the genetic innovations that underpinned the diversification of the phloemCombining studies of living species, fossils and genes, I will draw evolutionary conclusions about the phloem that none of these lines of evidence alone could achieve, marking a step change in our understanding of phloem evolution. The impact of this study will be to shed light on the evolution of this crucial plant tissue and to help understand how the structure and function of the phloem is tied to the level of atmospheric CO2. The findings of the Fellowship will therefore be essential for predicting how the phloem structure of living plants, including economically important crop and tree species, will likely respond in the next 50 to 100 years to rising atmospheric CO2 caused by anthropogenic climate change.I will be uniquely placed at the University of Edinburgh to carry out this programme of research. The School of Biological Sciences (SBS) is a world leader in studying the structural, functional and genetic changes that underpin complex plant traits in diverse lineages. In addition, my Fellowship will benefit greatly from collaboration with the palaeobiology group in the outstanding School of Geoscience and the collections of the two project partner organisations; the fossil plants in the National Museum Scotland (NMS) and living collections in the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE). In particular, the NMS contains a unique and unexploited collection that will be essential for my proposed research. Taken together, the excellent research environment in SBS, strength in palaeobiology in the School of Geoscience and access to the collections of the project partners makes this a Fellowship that could not be successfully accomplished anywhere else in the world.

整个植物的水分、矿物质营养和食物的分配是通过内部管道系统进行的，该管道系统由两个高度特化的组织--木质部和韧皮部组成。在植物进化过程中获得这些特殊的组织是使植物从微小的苔藓状物种进化到高耸的树木和主导当今景观的作物物种多样性的关键创新之一。木质部和韧皮部紧密相连，但功能不同，木质部输送水分，韧皮部输送整个植物的食物。所有具有重要经济价值的植物，无论是农作物还是森林物种，都依赖于通过韧皮部以糖的形式运输食物。然而，尽管韧皮部在植物生活的各个部分都扮演着关键的角色，但我们不知道韧皮部的结构和功能将如何变化，或者是否可以通过工程来应对未来的气候变化。预测韧皮部未来可能发生变化的关键证据保存在以前未被探索的植物化石记录中，这些植物经历了史前全球气候变化和极端大气二氧化碳的时期。拟议研究的目的是调查有关韧皮部进化的关键悬而未决的问题，韧皮部是最重要但最不为人所知的植物组织之一。我将通过解决三个主要问题来改变我们对韧皮部进化的认识：(I)韧皮部何时起源，(Ii)其结构、功能和遗传工具在过去4亿年中是如何演变的，(Iii)气候变化如何驱动韧皮部进化？为了回答这些问题，我将结合化石的尖端3D成像，对化石从未进行过的韧皮部功能的计算建模，以及对活植物的比较基因组分析。为了回答这些关键问题，我为该奖学金确定了三个目标：1.确定陆地植物韧皮部的起源2。揭示了地质年代中与气候变化相关的韧皮部结构和功能的主要演化创新。结合对现存物种、化石和基因的研究，我将得出仅凭这些证据都无法实现的关于韧皮部的进化结论，标志着我们对韧皮部进化的理解发生了一步变化。这项研究的影响将是阐明这种关键植物组织的进化，并帮助理解韧皮部的结构和功能是如何与大气二氧化碳水平联系在一起的。因此，该奖学金的发现对于预测未来50到100年内活植物的韧皮部结构可能如何应对人为气候变化导致的大气二氧化碳上升将是至关重要的。我将在爱丁堡大学独一无二地开展这项研究。生物科学学院(SBS)在研究结构、功能和遗传变化方面处于世界领先地位，这些变化支撑着不同谱系中复杂的植物特征。此外，我的奖学金将大大受益于与杰出地球科学学院的古生物学小组的合作，以及两个项目合作伙伴组织的藏品：苏格兰国家博物馆(NMS)的植物化石和爱丁堡皇家植物园(RBGE)的活体藏品。特别是，NMS包含了一个独特的、未被开发的集合，这将是我提议的研究的关键。总之，SBS良好的研究环境、地球科学学院在古生物学方面的实力以及能够获得项目合作伙伴的藏品，使这项研究成为世界其他任何地方都无法成功实现的研究成果。