NSF PRFB Postdoctoral Fellow Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts
Body of Abstract: Angiosperms are the most speciose and diverse lineage in the plant kingdom, and much of this great diversity is apparent in their floral organ. Many traits of flower development have evolved to facilitate plant-pollinator interactions and promote pollen transfer. The presence of nectary and the composition of its nectar is among these traits. In angiosperms, floral nectaries are thought to have evolved many times independently. While a few core eudicots have been shown to share similar genetic architecture in regulating their floral nectary development, how nectary formation is controlled in other angiosperm lineages is still a mystery. The basal eudicot species Aquilegia is an excellent system to study nectary development. In Aquilegia, each elaborated petal spur bears a nectary at the tip. The evolution and diversification of petal spur have facilitated the shifts in pollinators across Aquilegia species and the recent radiation of the genus. Recently, our lab has shown that the STYLISH transcription factors are key regulators of nectary development in Aquilegia and other Ranunculales species. Currently, we are employing RNAi-based gene silencing and gene expression profiling methods in Aquilegia to probe the genetic pathways downstream of STYLISH. To understand how the changes in concentration and composition of sugar in the nectar facilitated the shifts of pollinators in the Aquilegia genus, we are actively examining the expressions, localization, and biochemical properties of sugar processing and transport genes in different Aquilegia species. Together, our results will provide first-hand knowledge for the development, function, and evolution of nectary in basal eudicots.
This work is supported by NSF and Harvard University.