国家自然科学基金委重大项目“禾本科植物的适应性辐射及其进化机制”结题综述

国家自然科学基金委重大项目"禾本科植物的适应性辐射及其进化机制"利用比较形态学、分子系统学、进化发育生物学、古生物学等多方面证据,通过多学科交叉的方法探讨了禾本科植物中出现的适应性辐射现象及其机制,在禾本科的系统发育关系以及适应性辐射的基本式样、生物和非生物环境因素在物种适应和分化以及物种快速形成中的作用、基因组大小及其结构变异以及突变、重复和调控模式变化对适应性辐射过程中关键性状(功能)的影响等方面取得了重要进展,在人才培养、国际合作和实验体系建立等方面极具特点。该项目的顺利完成为更好地阐明植物多样性形成的原因与机理奠定了良好的基础。

Review of the major project ＂Adaptive Radiation of Poaceae and Its Evolutionary Consequences＂ supported by NSFC

The project ＂Adaptive Radiation of Poaceae and Its Evolutionary Consequences＂ investigated the pattern and mechanism of the adaptive radiations in the family Poaceae using multiple approaches including comparative morphology, molecular phylogeny, Evo-Devo and paleobotany. The major findings include： （1） reconstruction of the phylogenetic relationships of some controversy lineages within the grass family with sufficient resolution and detection of major radiations happened in the evolutionary history of grasses; （2） elucidation of the roles of biotic and abiotic factors in species adaption and divergence as well as rapid speciation; （3） detection of the impact of genome size variation, gene structure variation, gene duplication, and regulatory changes on the modifications of key characters （functions） during adaptive radiation. Meanwhile, many students have been trained, the technical platforms and analytical facilities have been improved significantly, and the collaborations between Chinese scientists and their counterparts from foreign countries have been strengthened. The completion of this project provides an important basis for further studies on plant adaptive radiation and the plant biodiversity as a whole.