The role of landscape structure in shaping genetic variation in natural populations

景观结构在塑造自然种群遗传变异中的作用

• 批准号: 312089-2012
• 负责人: Keyghobadi, Nusha
• 金额: $ 1.53万
• 依托单位: University of Western Ontario
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2013-01-01 至 2014-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=526383
• 关键词: role; landscape; structure; shaping; genetic

Biological diversity, the richness of variation among individuals, species, and ecological communities, is key to the maintenance of natural ecosystem processes and services. Genetic diversity, the heritable variation among individuals within a species, is the most fundamental level of biological diversity and is important for a species' survival and ability to evolve in the face of environmental change. Genetic diversity in natural populations is threatened by the loss and fragmentation of natural habitats, resulting from human-induced changes to landscapes such as the expansion of settlements, industry, and agriculture. As habitats become smaller and more isolated, the populations of plants and animals that occupy them are prone to lose genetic diversity. It is thus essential to understand how landscape alteration, particularly loss and fragmentation of habitats, affects the genetics of populations. My research program focuses on this problem, and more generally on how genetic variation in natural populations is shaped by characteristics of the surrounding landscape. My lab will examine to what extent the spatial arrangement of habitat in the landscape, as opposed to simply the amount of habitat available, is important in determining genetic variation in a species. This is a long-standing question that is very difficult to address, but using insects that live within the purple pitcher plant, we have developed a unique, natural study system that allows us to do so. We will also examine variation at important genes that are involved in metabolism, building a framework for addressing how adaptive, or functionally important, genetic variation is maintained in real landscapes. Our work can guide the management of landscapes to preserve biological diversity, and improves our understanding of how loss and fragmentation of habitats may affect the ability of populations to adapt to other environmental stresses, such as climate change or invasion by exotic species.

生物多样性，即个体、物种和生态群落之间丰富的变异，是维持自然生态系统过程和服务的关键。遗传多样性，即一个物种内个体之间的可遗传变异，是生物多样性的最基本层次，对于一个物种在环境变化中的生存和进化能力至关重要。自然种群的遗传多样性受到自然栖息地丧失和破碎的威胁，这是人类引起的景观变化，如定居点，工业和农业的扩张。随着栖息地变得越来越小，越来越孤立，占据它们的动植物种群很容易失去遗传多样性。因此，必须了解景观改变，特别是生境的丧失和破碎，如何影响种群的遗传学。我的研究项目集中在这个问题上，更一般地说，自然种群的遗传变异是如何被周围景观的特征所塑造的。我的实验室将研究在何种程度上的栖息地在景观中的空间布局，而不是简单的栖息地的数量，是在确定物种的遗传变异的重要性。这是一个长期存在的问题，很难解决，但使用生活在紫色猪笼草中的昆虫，我们已经开发出一种独特的，自然的研究系统，使我们能够做到这一点。我们还将研究参与代谢的重要基因的变异，建立一个框架，以解决如何适应，或功能上重要的，遗传变异是保持在真实的景观。我们的工作可以指导景观管理，以保护生物多样性，并提高我们对栖息地的丧失和破碎化如何影响种群适应其他环境压力（如气候变化或外来物种入侵）的能力的理解。