RPG: Evolutionary Ecophysiology of Adaptations to Low Water and Nutrient Availability in Townsendia annua

这项妇女研究计划补助金的目的是收集数据，以指导今后对植物物种形成中生理过程作用的调查。第一个目标是通过估计水分和氮利用效率与适应性的相关性，测量遗传性和权衡，探索对单一物种，沙漠年复合植物，Townsendia annua的低水分和氮可利用性的生理适应。评估对低资源可用性的生理和其他适应的表型可塑性和个体发生变异。这项工作将评估适应的遗传限制，并将为以后的生理进化研究奠定基础。植物学家很早就认识到，植物的分布受到它们耐受诸如沙漠等压力环境的能力的限制。但这就引出了一个问题，为什么有些植物能适应，而另一些却不能。本项目探索向日葵科沙漠植物生理适应的遗传潜力。

This research Planning Grant for Women is aimed at gathering data that will direct future investigations into the role of physiological processes in plant speciation. The first objective is to explore physiological adaptations to low water and nitrogen availability in a single species, the desert annual composite, Townsendia annua by estimating correlations of water- and nitrogen- use efficiency with fitness, measuring heritabilities and trade- offs, and evaluating phenotypic plasticity and ontogenetic variation for physiological and other adaptations to low resource availability. This work will assess the genetic limitations to adaptations and will set the stage for later studies of physiological evolution. Botanists have long recognized that the distributions of plants are limited by their ability to tolerate stressful environments such as deserts. But this begs the question of why some plants can adapt and others cannot. This project explores the genetic potential for physiological adaptation in a desert plant in the sunflower family.