LiT: Genomic Analysis of Life-History Adaptation to Variation in Seasonal Water Availability in Mimulus

John H.Willis IOS-1024966LiT：对生命历史适应Mimulus季节性可用水变化的基因组分析全球变暖趋势表明，许多地理区域正在经历更短、更温和的冬季和更长、更热的夏季。由于北美西部夏季干旱的加速到来，依赖融雪和短暂水分供应的当地植物物种将经历强有力的选择，以更早地生长和繁殖。植物物种对季节性土壤水分供应的持续变化的进化反应可能包括提前开花和在较短的日长下开花，以避免长期干旱。近年来，在生态基因组模式系统含羞草及其近缘野生花卉中发现了日长、敏感度和开花时间的巨大遗传变异。这种适应性变化与干旱开始时的当地环境差异有关，它可能代表了可能发生的遗传变化类型，以应对持续的气候变化。该项目使用强大的基因组图谱方法和自然栖息地的实验来确定与开花和逃脱干旱的季节性时间变化有关的关键基因。调查人员将邀请来自代表性不足群体的高中生和本科生参加研讨会和研究项目。此外，有价值的种子库和基因组数据收集将向整个科学界提供。从现在起，这些种子库将可用于进化研究长达50年。这将使他们能够与来自相同种群的未来样本进行比较，并识别与未来气候变化适应有关的基因。

John H.Willis IOS - 1024966LiT: Genomic analysis of life-history adaptation to variation in seasonal water availability in MimulusGlobal warming trends indicate that many geographic regions are experiencing shorter, milder winters and longer, hotter summers. Due to the accelerated onset of summer drought in western North America, local plant species reliant on snowmelt and ephemeral water supplies will experience strong selection to grow and reproduce earlier. The evolutionary response of plant species to continued changes in seasonal soil moisture availability will likely involve earlier flowering and flowering under shorter day lengths in order to escape periods of prolonged drought. Tremendous genetic variation in day length sensitivity and flowering time was recently discovered in the ecological genomic model system Mimulus guttatus and its closely related wildflower species. This adaptive variation is associated with local environmental differences in the onset of drought, and it likely represents the kinds of genetic changes that could occur in response to continued climate change. This project uses powerful genome mapping approaches and experiments in natural habitats to identify key genes involved in variation in seasonal timing of flowering and drought escape. The investigators will engage high school and undergraduate students from underrepresented groups in workshops and research projects. Additionally, valuable collections of seed stocks and genome data will be made available to the entire scientific community. The seed collections will be available for evolutionary studies for up to fifty years from now. This will allow them to be compared to future samples from the same populations and to identify genes involved in future climate change adaptations.