RUI: Collaborative Research: From Cacti to Carnivores: Using transcriptomes to explore the evolution of the highly diverse and globally distributed Caryophyllales

生物学家很早就知道，在不同的生物谱系中，性状和基因序列的进化速度不同，但很难理解这些进化速度变化的原因。例如，红花目包含所有开花植物物种的约6%，并表现出极端的生活史多样性，包括热带树木，温带草本植物，长寿的多汁仙人掌和各种各样的食肉植物。这些谱系之间的DNA序列进化速率差异很大。该项目将利用基因组测序技术和计算方法的最新进展，评估植物生活史和生态生理学变化与整个基因组进化速率变化的相关程度。与世界各地的研究人员合作，将对300种代表性的卡氏藻目物种的关键性状进行表征，并对10 000个基因进行测序。性状和基因组的进化速率变化分析将用于评估生活史和生态生理学如何影响基因组进化，反之亦然。该项目首次对生态学和生活史的变化与进化速率的全基因组变化之间的关系进行了严格的评估。它将对开花和作物植物中具有根本重要性的几种遗传途径的进化产生前所未有的洞察力，包括与花发育，光合作用和色素沉着相关的遗传途径。此外，这项研究将包括开发新的和完善的生物信息学工具，广泛用于生物学家。该项目将支持博士后研究人员，研究生和许多本科生在项目的各个方面的指导和培训，并将资助高中教师和植物生物学家的专业发展研讨会。

Biologists have long known that traits and gene sequences evolve at different rates in different lineages of organisms, but it has been difficult to understand the causes for these shifts in evolutionary rate. For example, the Caryophyllales contain ~6% of all flowering plant species and exhibit extreme life history diversity, including tropical trees, temperate herbs, long-lived succulent cacti, and a diverse array of carnivorous plants. The rate of DNA sequence evolution among these lineages differs greatly. This project will leverage recent advances in genome sequencing technologies and computational methods to evaluate the extent to which changes in life history and ecophysiology in plants are correlated with changes in the evolutionary rate over the entire genome. In collaboration with researchers worldwide, key traits will be characterized and 10,000 genes will be sequenced for 300 representative species of Caryophyllales. Analyses of evolutionary rate shifts in both traits and the genome will be used to assess how life history and ecophysiology have influenced genomic evolution, and vice versa. This project provides the first rigorous assessment of the relationship between shifts in ecology and life history and genome-wide changes in evolutionary rate. It will yield unprecedented insight into the evolution of several genetic pathways of fundamental importance in flowering and crop plants, including those associated with flower development, photosynthesis, and pigmentation. Furthermore, this research will include the development of new and refined bioinformatic tools of broad use to biologists. The project will support the mentorship and training of a postdoctoral researcher, graduate students, and numerous undergraduates on all aspects of the project, and will fund professional development workshops for high school teachers and plant biologists.