Molecular identification of gametophytes of bryophytes and ferns, and their potential use as bioindicators

在现存的胚胎植物或陆生植物中，只有苔藓植物、石松植物和蕨类植物保留了自由生活的配子体，它们几乎没有分类学家可以用来鉴定的显微特征。这些配子体表现出很大的admisibility不利的生长条件，并可能坚持作为不育，不确定的植物在几十年和百年。我们打算库存的多样性，自由生活的配子体的苔类和蕨类植物在厄瓜多尔南部的起点比较基因序列的数据库，以创建一个工具，可靠和方便的测定。通过比较孢子体（或孢子体携带配子体）和不育配子体沿着海拔样带的基因序列，我们将了解该物种的真实的海拔分布范围。在项目期间，每年将筛选该物种最佳区域之外的选定不育配子体菌落，以形成孢子体，这将与气候波动相一致，例如，在厄瓜多尔南部选定的主要研究地点，植被带受到“Massenerhebungseffekt”的挤压，因此是观察植被带因全球变暖而长期变化的理想研究地点。从一个既定的样带在北方厄瓜多尔的配子体样品将被用来证实我们的调查结果有关的物种的海拔序列。

Among extant embryophytes or land plants, only bryophytes, lycophytes and ferns retain a free-living gametophyte, which has few, microscopical characters the taxonomist can use for identification. These gametophytes show a great resistibility to unfavourable growing conditions and may persevere as sterile, indeterminable plants over decades and centuries.We intend to inventory the diversity of free-living gametophytes of liverworts and ferns in southern Ecuador as starting point for a database of comparative gene sequences in order to create a tool for reliable and accessible determination. By comparing gene sequences of sporophytes (or sporophyte bearing gametophytes) and sterile gametophytes along the altitudinal transect, we will fathom the real altitudinal range of the species. During the period of the project, selected sterile gametophytes colonies outside the optimum zone of the species will be screened annually for formation of sporophytes, which will be aligned with fluctuations in the climate, e.g., temperature peaks during El Niño seasons.The vegetation zones in the selected primary study site in southern Ecuador are putatively compressed by the “Massenerhebungseffekt”, thus making it an ideal study site to observe long-term shifts in the vegetation zones by global warming. Samples of gametophytes from an established transect in northern Ecuador will be used to corroborate our findings concerning the altitudinal sequence of the species.