MRI: Acquisition of a Ploidy Analyzer at Chicago Botanic Garden

授予芝加哥植物园（CBG）获得倍性分析仪，将用于保护和园艺研究;用于实际的植物保护活动;和中学，中学后和研究生教育和其他合作项目。倍性（细胞中染色体组的数量）的变化在植物和真菌的进化和多样性中起着重要作用。植物倍性的差异也有重要的实际应用，从选择合适的植物用于恢复项目，到其对农艺和园艺作物的育种和选择的影响。通过染色体固定、染色和显微镜分析来分析倍性的传统方法对于分析大量样品来说是耗时的、不精确的和不切实际的。倍性分析仪将允许植物和真菌DNA倍性和核基因组大小的快速、廉价和高样品量处理。这将大大提高CBG？的保护和园艺研究，教育计划，永久植物收集活动，以及其他合作。CBG的工作人员将传播他们的研究成果，以专业，科学和公众观众通过科学和流行的出版物，介绍，现场解释和展示，并通过CBG？的网站。公众也将受益于增强恢复自然领域的做法，从改善观赏植物的花园使用，并有机会担任学生，志愿者和外部合作伙伴的项目，使倍性分析仪成为可能。芝加哥植物园保护研究包括小，分散的人口的生物学;遗传学的稀有和入侵植物物种，以及真菌种群;植物和真菌对气候变化和生态系统管理的反应;以及种群中分子遗传多样性的空间和时间模式。倍性分析仪将使以下研究成为可能：为具有不同倍性水平的物种的恢复研究划定种子转移区域，以及评估具有不同倍性的物种的储存中的种子寿命，因为较高倍性种子的较大细胞尺寸可能影响冷冻种子的寿命。倍性分析仪也会影响CBG？的园艺计划，如赋予育种计划的能力，以配合杂交中使用的父母的倍性，评估处理植物的倍性，以增加其倍性，并帮助开发不育的三倍体形式的景观植物，以避免潜在的入侵。倍性分析仪还将提供给区域保护研究人员和恢复工作者以及无法使用该设备的商业和独立植物育种者。

An award is made to the Chicago Botanic Garden (CBG) to acquire a ploidy analyzer that will be utilized for conservation and horticultural research; for practical plant conservation activities; and for secondary, post-secondary, and graduate education and other collaborative projects. Variations in ploidy (the number of sets of chromosomes in a cell) play an important role in both plant and fungal evolution and diversity. Differences in plant ploidy also have significant practical applications, from the selection of appropriate plants for restoration projects to its impact on breeding and selection of agronomic and horticultural crops. The traditional method of analyzing ploidy via chromosome fixation, staining, and microscopic analysis is time consuming, inexact, and impractical for analyzing a large volume of samples. The ploidy analyzer will allow the rapid, inexpensive, and high-sample volume processing of plant and fungal DNA ploidy and nuclear genome size. This will broadly enhance CBG?s conservation and horticulture research, education programs, permanent plant collections activities, and other collaborations. CBG staff will disseminate their research results to professional, scientific, and public audiences through scientific and popular publications, presentations, on-site interpretation and displays, and through CBG?s website. The public will also benefit from enhanced restoration practices for natural areas, from improved ornamental plants for garden use, and from opportunities to serve as students, volunteers, and outside partners on the projects made possible by the ploidy analyzer.Chicago Botanic Garden conservation studies encompass the biology of small, fragmented populations; the genetics of both rare and invasive plant species, as well as fungal populations; plant and fungal responses to climate change and to ecosystem management; and spatial and temporal patterns of molecular genetic diversity in populations. The ploidy analyzer will make possible such studies as delineation of seed transfer zones for restoration studies of species with varied ploidy levels, and assessing seed longevity in storage of species with varied ploidy, as the larger cell sizes of higher ploidy seed can impact the longevity of frozen seed. The ploidy analyzer will also impact CBG?s horticultural programs, such as affording the breeding program the ability to match the ploidy of the parents used in crosses, assess the ploidy of plants treated to increase their ploidy, and aid in developing sterile triploid forms of landscape plants to avoid potential invasions. The ploidy analyzer will also be made available to regional conservation researchers and restoration practitioners as well as to commercial and independent plant breeders that do not access to this equipment.