NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2019: Ecology and evolution of a rare phenomenon: structural color in fruits

本行动资助NSF 2019年度生物学博士后研究奖学金，利用生物馆藏进行研究。该奖学金支持研究和培训将以创新的方式利用生物收集的研究员。果实的颜色在许多植物的生命周期中起着至关重要的作用，它能吸引动物吃掉果实，并把种子从母体植物中带走。蓝色水果相对罕见，有些不使用色素就能产生鲜艳的颜色。它们通过细胞壁上的纳米级结构来实现这一点，这些结构可以干涉光线产生颜色。这项研究将确定具有这种结构颜色果实的新物种，并描述这些颜色的生物物理机制。此外，这项工作将研究原产于澳大利亚、印度太平洋和东南亚的一组树木的果实结构颜色的演变。该项目将使我们了解罕见性状（如蓝色水果色）的进化，并为生物学家、物理学家和材料科学家之间的多学科互动提供一个平台。此外，这项工作将为参与这项工作的研究员和本科生提供培训。该项目的研究结果将通过学术出版物和会议传播，并通过外联活动向公众传播。由于已知结构颜色水果的缺乏，对结构颜色在水果中的生态功能及其进化背后的环境的假设受到限制。澳大利亚东北部有相对较多的蓝色果实物种，包括两种已知的结构颜色水果，E. angustifolius和Delarbrea michieana。该研究员将依靠植物标本馆和植物园的活体标本，1)调查植物标本馆中可能表现出结构色的新物种，2)使用光学和透射电子显微镜描述新物种结构色背后的生物物理机制，3)使用系统发育比较方法验证结构色作为Elaeocarpus高营养奖励的可靠信号的假设。该研究员将量化树果的各种颜色、营养成分、形态特征和细胞壁纳米结构。她将与科罗拉多大学博尔德分校和剑桥大学的一个跨学科团队合作，培训生物学和物理学本科生，并在这两个地方参与科学推广活动。该研究具有生物启发和仿生工程应用的潜力，并将提高我们对稀有结构色的起源，进化和生态学的理解。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2019, Research Using Biological Collections. The fellowship supports research and training of the fellow that will utilize biological collections in innovative ways. Fruit color plays an essential role in the life cycle of many plants by attracting animals who eat the fruits and carry the seeds away from the parent plant. Blue fruits are relatively rare, and some produce vivid colors without the use of pigments. They accomplish this via nano-scale structures in their cell walls that interfere with light to produce color. This research will identify new species that exhibit such structurally colored fruits, and describe the bio-physical mechanisms responsible for these colors. In addition, this work will examine the evolution of structural color in fruits from a group of trees native to Australia, the Indo-Pacific, and Southeast Asia. The project will inform our understanding of the evolution of rare traits (such as blue fruit color) as well as provide a platform for multi-disciplinary interaction between biologists, physicists, and material scientists. In addition, this work will provide training for the fellow and undergraduates who will be involved in the work. The project's findings will be disseminated through scholarly publications and conferences as well as to the public via outreach activities.The paucity of known structurally colored fruits has limited hypotheses about the ecological function of structural color in fruits and the circumstances behind its evolution. Northeast Australia has a relatively high number of blue-fruited species, including two of the known structurally colored fruits, E. angustifolius and Delarbrea michieana. The fellow will rely on both herbarium and living collections in botanical gardens to 1) survey herbarium collections for new species that may exhibit structural color, 2) describe the biophysical mechanism behind structural color in new species using optical and transmission electron microscopy, and 3) test the hypothesis that structural color serves as an honest signal of high nutritional reward in Elaeocarpus using phylogenetic comparative methods. The fellow will quantify a variety of color, nutritional content, morphological traits, and cell wall nanostructures across Elaeocarpus. She will collaborate with an interdisciplinary team at the University of Colorado-Boulder and the University of Cambridge, train biology and physics undergrads, and participate in science outreach activities in both locations. The research has the potential for bioinspired and biomimetic engineering applications, and will improve our understanding of the origin, evolution, and ecology of rare structural colors.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.