Collaborative Research: Developmental Selection During Reproduction Contributes to Plant Evolution and Adaptation

About This Grant

Plants have a unique life cycle that allows natural selection to affect the adult stage, as well as the earliest stages of reproduction—when pollen delivers genetic material and seeds begin to develop. This project explores how plants may improve the quality of their offspring by favoring certain genetic traits during these stages of reproduction. By influencing which traits are passed on to subsequent generations, these processes may help eliminate harmful mutations and promote characteristics that increase survival under challenging environmental conditions. Understanding how selection works at these critical early points in development sheds light on how plants adapt to changing environments and maintain the genetic diversity necessary for long-term evolutionary success. In addition to contributing to our knowledge of plant evolution, this research has potential applications in crop improvement and will support extensive training of graduate and undergraduate students and outreach through public presentations of topics related to this research. This research combines experimental manipulations and genomic analyses in the model plant Mimulus guttatus to investigate how natural selection during two early reproductive stages, haploid gametophytic selection and selective embryo abortion, influences patterns of inheritance, seedling fitness, and the potential for adaptation. Through a series of controlled crosses between homozygous and heterozygous lines grown in varied nutrient and salinity conditions, the researchers will identify deviations from expected patterns of genetic transmission (transmission ratio distortion) that indicate selection. Whole-genome sequencing of pooled offspring will pinpoint genomic regions affected by gametophytic selection and selective embryo abortion. Follow-up experiments will measure the fitness consequences of these genetic differences during seedling growth and assess whether selection at early stages helps remove deleterious mutations or promotes the spread of beneficial alleles. The project will also evaluate whether the same genetic variants influence traits across different life stages and how this shapes evolutionary outcomes. This is the first study to assess genome-wide developmental selection across plant life stages and will provide insights into how early reproductive processes contribute to evolution, genetic diversity, and environmental adaptation. Undergraduate and graduate students will gain hands-on experience in experimental and genomic research, and a new course-based undergraduate research experience will be developed to engage students in exploring plant reproduction and evolution in college biology classrooms. 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.