Improving food security in Africa: taxonomy, genetics and ecology of finger-grasses

改善非洲粮食安全：手指草的分类学、遗传学和生态学

• 批准号: 2606244
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Imperial College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2606244
• 关键词: Improving; food; security; Africa; taxonomy

Modern African agriculture is precariously reliant on crops introduced by European settlers. These foreign and genetically uniform food and forage plants are susceptible to disease and require more water than is frequently available. They are failing to support the continent's growing population. Yet the agricultural industry has forgotten plants native to Africa: unfamiliar to food and pasture production industries yet evolved under drought, locally diverse, and with potential which is largely untapped due to the lack of a basic botanical knowledge base.The finger-grasses (Poaceae genus Digitaria) are a significant global knowledge gap, a group of 277 grasses with superficially similar finger-like inflorescences and tiny flowering parts, with differences important for identification not visible without a powerful microscope. They are commonly missed by field surveys; there has been no attempt at a taxonomic treatment since 1950; and their evolutionary relationships are unknown. Multiple levels of polyploidy have been recorded, nuclear gene histories are complex, and finger-grasses may not even be a single evolutionary lineage. Yet across Africa Digitaria produces abundant juicy leaves loved by all cattle and Pangola grass (Digitaria eriantha) is cultivated for pasture. African Digitaria includes the mysterious fonio: world's only known crop which is a mixture of two genetically different species: Digitaria exilis and Digitaria iburua. Other species have become vigorous weeds of global importance.This project will investigate the evolutionary history and environmental niches of Digitaria in Africa in order to propose the most optimal future forage and food exploitation for resilience against land use change associated with population increase, drought and climate change. All species of African Digitaria already known for commercial uses will be investigated genetically and experimentally to establish their distribution, abundance, phenology, and yields. Herbarium specimens at Kew will be studied to determine species boundaries through morphological taxonomy. Phylogenetic reconstructions will be made through NGS sequence data in order to identify species with best potential for feeding animals and people. Niche modelling will explore areas Digitaria can be useful under different climate change scenarios.The student will be hosted at Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Institut d'Economie Rurale in Mali, and Imperial College's international centre of excellence in ecology and evolution (https://www.imperial.ac.uk/visit/campuses/silwood-park), under its Grand Challenges in Ecosystems and the Environment Initiative (http://www.imperial.ac.uk/ecosystems-and-environment).

现代非洲农业依赖于欧洲殖民者引进的农作物。这些外来的和遗传上相同的食用和饲料植物易受疾病的影响，需要比通常可用的更多的水。它们无法支撑非洲大陆不断增长的人口。然而，农业产业已经忘记了非洲本土的植物：由于缺乏基本的植物学知识基础，在干旱条件下进化，具有地方多样性，并且具有很大程度上未开发的潜力。（禾本科马唐属）是一个重大的全球知识差距，一组277草与表面相似的指状花序和微小的开花部分，其中对于识别来说重要的差异在没有高倍显微镜的情况下是不可见的。它们通常被野外调查遗漏;自1950年以来没有尝试过分类处理;它们的进化关系也是未知的。多倍性的多个层次已被记录，核基因的历史是复杂的，和手指草可能甚至不是一个单一的进化谱系。然而，在整个非洲，马唐产生了丰富的多汁的叶子，所有的牛都喜欢，而穿山甲草（马唐）被种植作为牧场。非洲马唐包括神秘的fonio：世界上唯一已知的作物，这是两个基因不同的物种的混合物：马唐exilis和马唐iburua。其他物种已成为具有全球重要性的旺盛杂草。该项目将调查非洲马唐属的进化历史和环境生态位，以提出最佳的未来饲料和食品开发，以应对与人口增加、干旱相关的土地利用变化。气候变化。所有已知用于商业用途的非洲马唐物种将进行遗传和实验研究，以确定其分布，丰度，物候和产量。将对基尤植物标本馆的标本进行研究，通过形态学分类确定物种边界。将通过NGS序列数据进行系统发育重建，以确定最有可能喂养动物和人类的物种。生态位建模将探索马唐在不同气候变化情景下可能发挥作用的领域。该学生将在皇家植物园基尤、马里农村经济研究所和帝国理工学院生态与进化国际卓越中心（https：//www.imperial.ac.uk/visit/campuses/silwood-park）接受接待，这是帝国理工学院生态系统和环境倡议的重大挑战（http：//www.imperial.ac.uk/ecosystems-and-environment）。