植物创新结构的起源和选择是一个远没有解决的进化生物学难题。茄科酸浆属植物(Physalis)花萼在受精后随着浆果的发育而迅速膨大，形成气球状结构，包裹整个浆果，这种结构称为“中国灯笼”。显然，它是一个花后的创新结构，经过自然选择进化而来。它看似简单但实为一个复杂的性状，由多个因子控制。它的生态生物学功能之一可能是为浆果的正常发育提供一个合适的微环境。本项目拟在人工控制的环境下，研究“中国灯笼”对适合度的影响，从转录组水平上研究该器官中基因表达对环境的应答变化，对一些关键调控基因进行分子进化和转基因功能分析；并与酸浆属近缘的且不具该创新结构的茄属(Solanum)植物进行比较研究，揭示“中国灯笼”发育的分子机理。通过对“中国灯笼”在不同生态环境下对适合度的影响、在新旧环境间基因表达变异的分析，发现与表型变异相关的关键遗传改变，并揭示其进化的作用力，这是进化生物学在微进化层次上的重要研究内容。

The origin and selection of plant morphological novelty is a long-standing problem in evolutionary biology. A few genera within Solanaceae, like Physalis, the calyx is rapidly expanded after fertilization as berry develops, thus forming a balloon-like structure, which encapsulates the berry ultimately. The novel structure is called the "Chinese lantern". Obviously, it is a post-floral novelty from natural selection. It is an apparently simple but complicated trait. It is controlled by multiple components/genes, and their interaction with environments. The trait very likely provides a suitable microenvironment for the normal development of the fruit. The project is to aim at studying the effects of the Chinese lantern on the fitness in controlled conditions, the differential gene expression profiles at transcriptome level of the “Chinese lantern” in Physalis pubescens to characterize some key regulatory genes for development of the trait, followed by molecular evolution analysis and transgenic functional analysis. Comparative study between Physalis and its close relative Solanum without a lantern-like structure could reveal the molecular mechanisms of the development of the "Chinese lantern". These work, plus investigation of variation in fitness in different ecological environments, will identify the key genetic changes associated with phenotypic variation, and reveal the selective forces for “Chinese lantern”. As an important area of evolutionary biology, our efforts belong to microevolution.