Project Baseline, a living plant genome reserve for the study of evolution

该项目的目的是创建一个国家科学资源：第一个种子基因组储备，专门设计用于研究植物如何在较长时间内对环境变化做出反应。种子将与种群、环境和气候数据一起从全美约80个物种中收集，并储存在美国农业部国家遗传资源保存中心，供进化生物学家未来使用。为了保护生物多样性和保护我们的国家资源，了解物种如何适应不断变化的气候至关重要。许多物种已经在发生变化，春季开花较早的模式就是明证。确定这种变化是否源于适应性进化的一个有效方法是在共同的条件下并肩抚养祖先和后代。然而，让有活力的种子随着时间的推移而存活并从土壤中复活的偶然条件是罕见的。该项目将创建一个计划中的种子集合，使未来能够研究应对全球变化的进化。有了这个项目，我们将创造一个种子“时间胶囊”，让未来的生物学家剖析进化变化的遗传基础。此外，在种子采集过程中，将对许多本科生、研究生和博士后学者进行植物种群生物学和保护方面的培训。

The purpose of this project is to create a national scientific resource: the first genome reserve of seeds specifically designed to allow investigation of how plants respond to environmental change over long periods of time. Seeds will be collected from approximately 80 species throughout the U.S., along with population, environmental and climatic data, and stored at the USDA National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation for future use by evolutionary biologists.To protect biodiversity and preserve our national resources, it is critical to understand how species will adapt to changing climates. Many species are already changing, as evidenced by patterns of earlier flowering in the spring. One powerful way to determine if such changes are due to adaptive evolution is to raise ancestors and descendents side by side under common conditions. However, the fortuitous conditions that allow viable seeds to persist over time and be resurrected from the soil are rare. This project will create a planned collection of seeds that will allow future studies of evolution in response to global change. With this project, we will create a seed 'time capsule' that will allow future biologists to dissect the genetic basis of evolutionary change. In addition, during the course of seed collection, many undergraduate students, graduate students and post-doctoral scholars will be trained in plant population biology and conservation.