| 项目编号: | 1501710
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| 项目名称: | DISSERTATION RESEARCH: The Phenotypic and Genetic Basis of Facilitation and Competition in Plants |
| 作者: | Kathleen Donohue
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| 承担单位: | Duke University
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| 批准年: | 2014
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| 开始日期: | 2015-07-01
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| 结束日期: | 2018-04-30
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| 资助金额: | USD20546
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| 资助来源: | US-NSF
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| 项目类别: | Standard Grant
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| 国家: | US
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| 语种: | 英语
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| 特色学科分类: | Biological Sciences - Environmental Biology
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| 英文关键词: | plant
; researcher
; competition
; facilitation
; harm
; neighbor
; plant good competitor
; plant trait
; focal plant
; protection
; single plant
; plant interaction
; protection cause plant trait
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| 英文摘要: | Plants growing in the same place harm each other when there are not enough resources such as nutrients and sunlight to go around. This means poor competitors are at the mercy of superior ones, and less likely to survive and reproduce. On the flip side, plants can actually protect each other when faced with environmental stress such as drought. By blocking sunlight from reaching and heating the soil, plants that are growing close together prevent the evaporation of soil moisture. But since environments are constantly changing, a single plant can receive both harm and protection from neighbors over its lifetime. These dynamic neighbor relationships raise many intriguing questions. What makes some plants good competitors, but makes others rely on protection from their neighbors? How much do genetics versus the environment (nature versus nurture) control whether plants will harm or protect each other? Do harm and protection cause plant traits to evolve? The researchers aim to identify environmental conditions, plant traits, and genes that cause harm and protection, and use this information to determine if these plant interactions affect evolution. By identifying conditions that reduce harm, this research helps ecologists working to develop better methods to protect endangered species that are poor competitors. The results also can be used to breed crops that can survive and make food even when resources are low and stress is high.
The researchers are combining manipulations of the environment with selection analysis and other quantitative genetics techniques (e.g. analyses of trait co-variances) to connect competition (harm) and facilitation (protection) with natural selection and adaptation in Arabidopsis thaliana (Brassicaceae). Changes in light, moisture, and temperature caused by neighbors are being linked with the effects of those neighbors on the survival and reproduction of focal plants. Genome-wide association mapping is being used to identify genes for competition and facilitation as those explaining differences in survival and reproduction in the presence versus absence of neighbors. Once all these analyses are complete, the researchers plan to use previous knowledge of gene function to test the hypothesis that genes controlling nutrient processing and requirements, phenology, and stress tolerance also control competition and facilitation. |
| 资源类型: | 项目
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| 标识符: | http://119.78.100.158/handle/2HF3EXSE/94154
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| Appears in Collections: | 影响、适应和脆弱性
气候减缓与适应
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| Recommended Citation: | |
Kathleen Donohue. DISSERTATION RESEARCH: The Phenotypic and Genetic Basis of Facilitation and Competition in Plants. 2014-01-01.
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