International Research Fellowship Program: Using Empirical Data to Test Population and Metapopulation Models for the Evolution of Mating Systems in the Annual Plant M. Annua

[202645]国际研究奖学金计划使美国科学家和工程师能够在国外进行三到二十四个月的研究。该计划的奖励为联合研究提供了机会，并利用独特或互补的设施、专业知识和国外的实验条件。该奖项将支持Sarah M. Eppley博士与英国牛津大学John R. Pannell博士一起进行为期24个月的研究。埃普利和她的主人将测试种群和元种群模型的交配系统的演变。这种一年生植物是一种极好的实验研究物种，用于测试诸如此类的理论模型，因为它是一种短寿的一年生植物，可以在几周内生长到性成熟。它还提供了一个特殊的机会来确定各种交配系统参数和育种系统之间的关系。正在进行的研究已经建立了该物种的基本信息和技术，包括分子标记的发展，这些标记有助于研究有关交配系统进化的具体问题。这项研究是同类研究中第一个比较近交种群和远交种群在组合与单独性别背景下的基因流率。该项目还将提供风媒传粉植物不同性别分配策略对基因流动影响的信息。牛津大学的教职员工一直在积极研究植物的进化过程，植物生态学家、遗传学家、生理学家和分子生物学家之间进行跨学科的互动。Pannell博士已经与M. annua一起工作了七年，是植物交配系统遗传学以及探索交配系统进化理论模型的构建和解释方面的权威。

0202645EppleyThe International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.This award will support a twenty-four month research fellowship by Dr. Sarah M. Eppley to work with Dr. John R. Pannell at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.Dr. Eppley and her host will test population and metapopulation models for the evolution of mating systems in Mercurialis annual. This annual plant is an excellent species for empirical studies designed to test theoretical models such as this because it is a short-lived annual that can be grown to sexual maturity within weeks. It also offers an exceptional opportunity to determine the relationship between various mating-system parameters and breeding systems. Ongoing research has established baseline information and techniques for this species, including development of molecular markers that lend themselves to the study of specific questions regarding mating-system evolution. This study is the first of its kind to compare the rates of gene flow between inbreeding and outbreeding populations in the context of combines versus separate sexes. The project will also provide information on the consequences for gene flow of contrasting sex allocation strategies in a wind-pollinated plant species.The University of Oxford's faculty has been actively investigating plant evolutionary processes, with cross-disciplinary interactions between plant ecologists, geneticists, physiologists, and molecular biologists. Dr. Pannell has been working with M. annua for seven years and is an authority on the genetics of plant mating systems and on the construction and interpretation of theoretical models exploring mating-system evolution.