CRB: Collaborative Research: Disease as a Threat to the Biodiversity of an Endangered Plant

维持濒危物种的遗传多样性是保护生物学的一个重要目标。然而，在过去的研究中，疾病对濒危植物的威胁被忽视了。疾病可能导致植物数量减少和/或疾病可能降低种群内的遗传多样性。一个例子是孟齐家墙花的白锈病，这是一种濒危植物，仅限于加利福尼亚州北部海岸正在消失的本土沙丘群落。一些植物种群患有这种疾病，尽管墙花一直是广泛研究的对象，但这种疾病的破坏性影响尚未被调查。生态学和遗传学研究都是必需的。这项研究将密切研究墙花与其病害之间的关系，以评估病害是否已导致植物濒临灭绝，或使植物无法恢复。此外，将对植物和病原菌种群内的遗传多样性进行为期三年的测量，这将提供多样性在保护期间是否保持或遗传结构是否发生任何变化的指示。这项研究的许多方面都是独一无二的。这是加州自然保护协会(加州自然保护协会)和密歇根州立大学(传统的基础研究机构)合作的成果。这一伙伴关系将在基础科学和应用保护之间提供必要的合作努力。通过将遗传研究与种群监测相结合，将解决专门针对孟席斯墙花的管理选择。此外，这种方法将引入一种普遍的战略，以评估疾病对其他濒危植物的影响。这些结果将为未来的预测数学模型提供基础，这些模型可以用来评估具体的保护活动将如何影响恢复。由此，自然资源保护者将能够在管理选项之间进行选择。与这些应用方面一起包括的是对自然种群中植物疾病的基础研究。该项目将通过引入一种新型的模型系统来扩展该学科，该模型系统具有与目前正在研究的模型系统不同的属性。

Maintaining genetic diversity within an endangered species is an important goal of conservation biology. However, the threat of disease to endangered plants has been neglected in past studies. Disease may cause plant numbers to decline and/or the disease may reduce the genetic diversity within a population. An example is a white rust disease of the Menzies'wallflower, Erysimum menziesii, an endangered plant restricted to vanishing native dune communities along the northern California coast. Some populations of the plant suffer from the disease and, although the wallflower has been the object of extensive research, the destructive effect of the disease has not been investigated. Both ecological and genetic studies are required. This research will closely examine the relationship between the wallflower and its disease to assess if disease has caused the plant to become endangered or is keeping the plant form recovering. In addition, the genetic diversity within both the plant and pathogen populations will be measured for three years and this will provide an indication if diversity is being maintained during conservation or if there is any change in the genetic structure. Many aspects of this research are unique. It is a collaborative effort between The California Nature Conservancy, a conservation management organization, and Michigan State University, a traditional basic research institution. This partnership will provide needed cooperative effort between basic science and applied conservation. By combining genetic studies with population monitoring, management options specifically for Menzies' wallflower will be addressed. In addition, this approach will introduce a generalized strategy to assess the impact of disease on other endangered plants. The results will provide the basis for future predictive mathematical models which can be used to evaluate how specific conservation activities would affect recovery. From this, conservationists will be able to choose between management options. Included with these applied aspects is the basic study of plant disease in natural populations. This project will expand the discipline by introducing a new type of model system, one with different attributes than those currently under study.