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

生物学家早就知道，特征和基因序列在不同的生物体谱系中以不同的速度进化，但很难理解这些进化速度变化的原因。例如，石竹目植物约占所有开花植物物种的6%，并表现出极端的生活史多样性，包括热带乔木、温带草本植物、长寿的肉质仙人掌和各种各样的食肉植物。这些谱系之间的DNA序列进化速度差别很大。该项目将利用基因组测序技术和计算方法的最新进展来评估植物生活史和生态生理学的变化与整个基因组进化速度的变化之间的关联程度。与世界各地的研究人员合作，将对石竹目300个代表性物种的关键特征进行表征，并对10,000个基因进行测序。对性状和基因组进化速率变化的分析将被用来评估生活史和生态生理学如何影响基因组进化，反之亦然。该项目首次对生态和生活史的转变与全基因组进化速度变化之间的关系进行了严格评估。它将对开花和农作物中几条基本重要的遗传途径的进化产生前所未有的洞察力，包括与花发育、光合作用和色素作用相关的那些遗传途径。此外，这项研究将包括开发新的和改进的生物信息学工具，供生物学家广泛使用。该项目将支持对一名博士后研究员、研究生和许多本科生进行项目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讲习班。

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.