Dissertation Research: The Genetic Architecture of Glucosinolate Breakdown Specificity

对于适应性表型和潜在基因进化之间的关系，我们知之甚少。植物对昆虫的抗性是一种不断经历自然选择的生态学上重要的表型。本研究将揭示基因控制天然植物杀虫剂，硫代葡萄糖苷，在模式植物拟南芥，采用定量和反向遗传学，蛋白质组学和DNA序列分析。这些数据以及拟南芥群落中丰富的公开可用资源将显示选择如何塑造这种在生态和农业上重要的食草动物防御系统的遗传结构。这代表了对表型进化研究的重要贡献，它将有助于解决该领域的几个长期争论。除了对进化、生态学和农业领域的贡献外，硫代葡萄糖苷在人类饮食中存在时可以降低癌症风险，因此这项研究对人类营养和农业具有重要意义。此外，该项目将为研究生和本科生研究人员提供培训和研究经验，提供合作机会，并向科学界传播这些成果。

Relatively little is known about the relationship between adaptive phenotypes and the evolution of the underlying genes. One ecologically important phenotype that is constantly undergoing natural selection is plant resistance to insects. This study will uncover genes controlling natural plant insecticides, the glucosinolates, in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, employing quantitative and reverse genetics, proteomics, and DNA sequence analysis. These data, and the wealth of publicly available resources in the Arabidopsis community, will show how selection has shaped the genetic architecture of this ecologically and agriculturally important herbivory defense system. This represents an important contribution to the study of phenotypic evolution and it will help resolve several long standing debates in the field. In addition to contributions to the fields of evolution, ecology and agriculture, glucosinolates reduce cancer risks when present in the human diet, thus this study has important implications for human nutrition and agriculture. Additionally, this project will provide for training and research experience for graduate and undergraduate researchers, opportunities for collaboration, and the dissemination of these results to the scientific community.