BRC-BIO: Understanding the Role of Species Interactions in Evolutionary Radiations Through the Evolution of Non-flying Mammal Pollination in the Iconic Plant Genus Protea

植物和传粉者之间的相互作用影响着花的形状。昆虫是最常见的传粉者，但许多植物依赖其他动物，如鸟类和蝙蝠。在极少数情况下，啮齿动物或其他不会飞的哺乳动物充当植物的传粉者。南非的糖树利用许多不同的传粉媒介，包括不会飞的哺乳动物。以啮齿动物为传粉媒介的糖灌木与以鸟类为传粉媒介的糖灌木在许多重要方面存在差异。它们有不同的气味、不同的微生物组合和不同的花位。该项目将对南非的甘蔗丛进行采样，以确定物种之间的进化关系，并检查允许非飞行哺乳动物授粉进化的特征和环境环境。这项工作将吸引本科生研究人员进行国际实地经验和跨文化科学思想交流。此外，学生将在一个植物和人类多样性丰富的地区参与生物学和社会工作之间的跨学科思想交流。这个项目的结果将提供对物种相互作用如何促进生物多样性的更深入的理解，并有助于预测这些复杂系统如何应对正在发生的全球变化。对于物种间的相互作用对进化辐射的影响，我们所知甚少。该项目将有助于了解导致Protea非飞行哺乳动物授粉进化的条件及其作为这种辐射多样化的潜在驱动因素的作用。首先，这项工作将增加采样的Protea物种的分类广度，并使对物种关系的更强有力的理解得以重建。其次，对物种关系的更好理解将使研究人员能够估计授粉状态在进化过程中变化的频率。研究人员还将重建亚支系祖先传粉的状态，并估计传粉者转移发生的速度。最后，花和全植物性状数据将与环境数据相结合，以评估向非飞行哺乳动物授粉转变的总体模式。这项工作将利用对标志性辐射的迷人适应，来了解物种相互作用在地球上生物多样性最丰富的地区之一产生多样性中的作用。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。

Interactions between plants and pollinators influence many ways in which flowers are shaped. Insects are the most common living pollinators, but many plants rely on other animals like birds and bats. In rare cases rodents or other non-flying mammals serve as pollinators to plants. The South African proteas, or sugarbushes, use many different pollinators, including non-flying mammals. Sugarbush species pollinated by rodents are different from sugarbush species pollinated by birds in important ways. They have different scents, different microbial associations, and different flower positioning. This project will sample sugarbushes in South Africa to determine the evolutionary relationships among species and to examine the traits and environmental circumstances that allowed non-flying mammal pollination to evolve. The work will engage undergraduate researchers in international field experiences and cross-cultural exchange of scientific ideas. Further, students will participate in cross-disciplinary sharing of ideas between biology and social work in a region that is rich in both plant and human diversity. Results from this project will provide a deeper understanding of how species interactions contribute to biodiversity and can help to predict how these complex systems may respond to undergoing global change. Little is known about the role of species interactions in contributing to evolutionary radiations. This project will help to understand the conditions that led to the evolution of non-flying mammal pollination in Protea and its role as a potential driver of diversification in this radiation. First, the work will increase the taxonomic breadth of sampled Protea species and enable the reconstruction of a more robust understanding of species relationships. Second, the improved understanding of species relationships will allow researchers to estimate how often pollination states changed over evolutionary time. Researchers will also reconstruct the ancestral pollination states of subclades and estimate the rate at which pollinator shifts have occurred. Finally, data on floral and whole-plant traits will be combined with environmental data to assess overall patterns of shifts to non-flying mammal pollination. This work will use a fascinating adaptation in an iconic radiation to understand the role of species interactions in generating diversity in one of the most biodiverse regions on Earth.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.