Progress 10/01/15 to 09/30/20
Outputs
Target Audience:The work from Objectives 1 and 2 serves the academic community interested agrobiodiversity generally, genetic diversity in crops, and the ways that past use and environment influence their diversity, as well as the farmers utilizing landrace diversity in their cropping systems. This is of additional interest to the international NGO and research institute community around the globe working with landraces, as well as regulators and other interested parties. Objective 3 serves both the academic community interested in how genetic diversity affects ecosystem services and resilience to climate and land use change. The discussions of climate change also interest those interested in the topic, including working in the policy arena. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The graduate student received one-on-one mentorship from me and from other committee members on their research. He has been interacting with a diverse team of researchers on our group project, including Mexican colleagues and graduate students. He presented his research at professional meetings and mentored an undergraduate in research. An undergraduate had a chance to work with me on a presentation of his work too. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We primarily disseminated our work through publication of our research results in peer reviewed journals, as well as through professional conferences. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
For Objective 1 (Explore the geographic patterns of molecular and quantitative genetic diversity, plasticity, and local adaptation of landraces of important crops (e.g., maize and chile pepper)) and Objective 2 (Discern how crop diversity responds to historic and current human-mediated and natural selection, including by environmental variation), I accomplished a number of things in 2019-2020. With one past doctoral student, I coauthored a paper to understand the ways that elevation influences the genetics of crop populations. In particular, we found that there was differentiation in the expression of genes related to UV-B protection in maize from lower and higher elevations. In relation to my work on chile peppers, we also published a paper on germination in peppers collected from different environments and farming systems. We found that seeds from hotter and drier zones delayed germination with drought more than those from cooler and wetter zones, indicating an adaptation. Seeds from wild and backyard environments also saw reduced germination, perhaps indicating less selection on germination over time. I was coauthor on a manuscript exploring the geographic distribution of Capsicum species to identify needs within the genus for conservation of genetic material. In my AFRI-funded research on chile pepper and adaptation to abiotic stresses that investigates connections between genetic, phenotypic, and climatic variation, we finalized our collections of chile pepper landraces from throughout Mexico and continued advancing populations for future QTL work. We also performed multiple greenhouse experiments to understand plant responses of diverse chile peppers to water stress and begin to understand the diversity found in chile pepper root structure and its ecological implications. Finally, we grew landraces of maize from across Mexico up here in Ohio to phenotype them for their ability to produce aerial roots and mucilage, two requirements for supporting nitrogen fixation. This year I had one graduate student and three undergraduates working on the first and second objectives. The graduate student prepared an article for publication related to the response of diverse chile peppers from the US and Mexico to water deficit in the greenhouse. He found that there is less differentiation between US and Mexican types than we might expect and that some varieties have potential for possessing drought tolerance. One undergrad also grew chile pepper in the greenhouse to contribute to her undergraduate honors thesis. For Objective 3 (Determine how management of genetic diversity and agroecosystems may affect ecosystem services and resilience to climatic and land use change), I continued work with a graduate student, on whose committee I serve, to analyze data related to his field research on soil and vegetative aspects of agricultural change in rural southern Belize. He is finding that land use does have a relationship with soil characteristics and that within soil types, soil management can influence aspects of the soil.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Khoury, C.K., D. Carver, D.W. Barchenger, G.E. Barboza, M. van Zonneveld, R. Jarret, L. Bohs, M. Kantar, M. Uchanski, K.L. Mercer, G.P. Nabhan, P.W. Bosland, S.L. Greene. 2020. Modeled distributions and conservation status of the wild relatives of chile peppers (Capsicum L.). Diversity and Distributions 26(2): 209-225. doi.org/10.1111/ddi.13008.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Kost, M.*, H. Perales; S. Wijeratne, A. Wijeratne, E. Stockinger, E. Grotewold, and K. Mercer. 2020. Transcriptional differentiation of UV-B protectant genes in maize landraces spanning an elevational gradient in Chiapas, Mexico. Evolutionary Applications. doi: 10.1111/eva.12954
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Hern�ndez, F., M. Poverene, K.L. Mercer, and A. Presotto. 2020. Genetic variation for the tolerance to extreme temperatures in wild and cultivated sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) during early vegetative phases. Crop and Pasture Science 71: 578-591. doi: 10.1071/CP20005
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Bernau, V.*, L. Jard�n-Barbolla, L. McHale, and K.L. Mercer. 2020. Germination response of diverse wild and landrace chile peppers (Capsicum spp.) under drought stress under drought stress simulated with polyethylene glycol. PLOS ONE. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0236001
|
Progress 10/01/18 to 09/30/19
Outputs
Target Audience:The work from Objectives 1 and 2 serves the academic community interested agrobiodiversity generally, genetic diversity in crops, and the ways that past use and environment influence their diversity, as well as the farmers utilizing landrace diversity in their cropping systems. This is of additional interest to the international NGO and research institute community around the globe working with landraces, as well as regulators and other interested parties. Objective 3 serves both the academic community interested in how genetic diversity affects ecosystem services and resilience to climate and land use change. The discussions of climate change also interest those interested in the topic, including working in the policy arena. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?All three graduate students received one-on-one mentorship from me and from other committee members on their research. One graduate student was able to join my Mexican colleague on a chile pepper collection trip through southern Mexico and also met a number of Mexican graduate students. My graduate students also attended meetings and a three day training on the use of some new equipment in the lab that measures physiological status. I had two undergraduate students working closely with one graduate student. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We primarily disseminated our work through publication of our research results in peer reviewed journals, as well as through professional conferences. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?For objectives 1 and 2, as we will continue with data analysis and manuscript preparation, especially since I have two graduate students who recently defended and another preparing dissertation chapters. We will also continue with research on my AFRI grant, which will involve orchestrating the choice and movement of accessions to use in a new set of crosses and sequencing DNA of the hundreds of collections we have made. We will also continue to grow plants in the greenhouse and field to better understand the adaptations that chile pepper and maize landraces have to abiotic stresses. As the lead PI, I will oversee all the research in my lab and coordinate research elsewhere. I plan to oversee at least two existing undergraduate research projects, and perhaps integrate another on seed characteristics. For objective 3, I will advise on the experimental design and data analysis and collaborate on the writing of papers on agroecological dynamics in Maya farming systems.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
For Objective 1 (Explore the geographic patterns of molecular and quantitative genetic diversity, plasticity, and local adaptation of landraces of important crops (e.g., maize and chile pepper)) and Objective 2 (Discern how crop diversity responds to historic and current human-mediated and natural selection, including by environmental variation), I accomplished a number of things in 2018-2019. I was first author a book chapter about Crop Evolutionary Ecology, trying to clarify the major questions in this field drive the advancement of our understanding of agrobiodiversity. I also coauthored a paper exploring the ways that environment and genetics affects the selection on traits in crop-wild sunflower hybrid zones. We found that stressful conditions establish a scenario more suitable for crop allele introgression and clarify that nonlinear selection dynamics may play a role in this process. In my AFRI-funded research on chile pepper and adaptation to abiotic stresses that investigates connections between genetic, phenotypic, and climatic variation, we advanced our collections of chile pepper landraces from throughout Mexico and continued advancing populations. We also performed multiple greenhouse experiments to understand plant responses of diverse chile peppers to water stress and begin to understand the diversity found in chile pepper root structure and its ecological implications. Finally, we grew landraces of maize from across Mexico up here in Ohio to phenotype them for their ability to produce aerial roots and mucilage, two requirements for supporting nitrogen fixation. This year I had three graduate students and three undergraduates working in this on the first and second objectives. Two graduate students, defended their dissertations and each submitted one article from their chapters. One was on responses of diverse chile landraces from Mexico to manipulated drought treatments at the seed stage. In a laboratory, she noted that germination behavior was heavily influenced by the kind of system in which the plant had grown (plantation vs. backyard vs. wild), as well as the environmental conditions from which it came. Another graduate student submitted an article from a dissertation chapter on the adaptation of maize landraces to environmental gradients. In particular, he confirmed that landraces were largely locally adapted and measured the physiological status of those plants. One undergrad also grew maize to contribute to his undergraduate thesis. For Objective 3 (Determine how management of genetic diversity and agroecosystems may affect ecosystem services and resilience to climatic and land use change), I continued to engage in agroecological research in Belize which queries patterns of land use change in subsistence Maya farm systems. A graduate student, on whose committee I serve, continued his significant field research on soil and vegetative aspects of agricultural change. He is finding that land use does have a relationship with soil characteristics and that within soil types, soil management can influence aspects of the soil. Field experiments were unsuccessful this year due to unpredictable weather and difficulty maintaining collaborations.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Mercer, K.L. and H.R. Perales. 2019. Structure of local adaptation across the landscape: flowering time and fitness in Mexican maize (Zea mays L. ssp. mays) landraces. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution 66: 27-45. doi:10.1007/s10722-018-0693-7
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
P�rez-Alquicira, J., A. Michel, E. vander Knaap, K. Mercer, L. McHale, T. Mitchell, J. Luna-Ruiz, E. Texocotitla-V�zquez, O. Vargas-Ponce. 2019. Genetic structure of Liriomyza trifolii (Diptera: Agromyzidae) associated to host plants and pepper landraces in Mexico. Environmental Entomology 48: 253-262. doi.org/10.1093/ee/nvy184
- Type:
Book Chapters
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Mercer, K.L., Y. Vigouroux, N.P. Casta�eda-�lvarez, S. de Haan, R.J. Hijmans, C. Leclerc, D. McKey, and S.Vanek. 2019. Crop evolutionary agroecology: genetic and functional dimensions of agrobiodiversity and associated knowledge. In: Agrobiodiversity: Integrating Knowledge for a Sustainable Future, edited by K. S. Zimmerer and S. de Haan. Str�ngmann Forum Reports, vol. 24, J. Lupp, series editor. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Wade, J., S. W. Culman, S. Sharma, M. Mann, M. S. Demyan, K. L. Mercer and N. T. Basta. 2019. How does phosphorus restriction impact soil health parameters in Midwestern corn-soybean cropping systems? Agronomy Journal 111: 1682-1692. doi: 10.2134/agronj2018.11.0739
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Presotto, A., F. Hern�ndez, and K. Mercer. 2019. Phenotypic selection under two contrasting environments in wild sunflower and their crop-wild hybrids. Evolutionary Applications 12: 1703-1717. doi: 10.1111/EVA.12828.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Khoury, C.K., D. Carver, D.W. Barchenger, G.E. Barboza, M. van Zonneveld, R. Jarret, L. Bohs, M. Kantar, M. Uchanski, K.L. Mercer, G.P. Nabhan, P.W. Bosland, S.L. Greene. Modeled distributions and conservation status of the wild relatives of chile peppers (Capsicum L.). Under review at Diversity and Distributions
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Kost, M.*, H. Perales; S. Wijeratne, A. Wijeratne, E. Stockinger, E. Grotewold, and K. Mercer. Transcriptional differentiation of UV-B protectant genes in maize landraces spanning an elevational gradient in Chiapas, Mexico. Accepted with minor revision for Evolutionary Applications.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Pace, B.A.*, H. Perales, and K.L. Mercer. Functional traits contributing to growth and adaptation of Mexican maize landraces. Was submitted, now under revision.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Bernau, V.*, K. Mercer, L. McHale, and L. Jard�n-Barbolla. Germination of diverse chile peppers (Capsicum spp.) under simulated drought stress. Was submitted, now under revision.
|
Progress 10/01/17 to 09/30/18
Outputs
Target Audience:The work from Objectives 1 and 2 serves the academic community interested agrobiodiversity generally, genetic diversity in crops, and the ways that past use and environment influence their diversity, as well as the farmers utilizing landrace diversity in their cropping systems. This is of additional interest to the international NGO and research institute community around the globe working with landraces, as well as regulators and other interested parties. Objective 3 serves both the academic community interested in how genetic diversity affects ecosystem services and resilience to climate and land use change. The discussions of climate change also interest those interested in the topic, including working in the policy arena. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?All three graduate students received one-on-one mentorship from me and from other committee members on their research. One graduate student spent part of the year in Mexico doing research and learning how to operate internationally. My graduate students attended meetings and training. I had two undergraduate students working closely with one graduate student and one did an independent research project with me that became her thesis. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We primarily disseminated our work through publication of our research results in peer reviewed journals, as well as through professional conferences. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?For objectives 1 and 2, as we will continue with data analysis and manuscript preparation, especially since I have two graduate students who recently defended. We will also continue with research on my AFRI grant, which will involve a range of collections of chile pepper accessions from across Mexico's diverse environmental conditions. I will join my collaborator on one of those collection trips. We will also grow plants in the greenhouse and field to better understand the adaptations that chile pepper and maize landraces have to abiotic stresses. As the lead PI, I will oversee all the research in my lab and coordinate research elsewhere. I plan to integrate two new undergraduate research projects into my lab. For objective 3, I will advise on the experimental design and data analysis and collaborate on the writing of papers on agroecological dynamics in Maya farming systems. In collaboration, we will hold the second year of our maize evaluations, as well as a second trial on cover crop use.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
For Objective 1 (Explore the geographic patterns of molecular and quantitative genetic diversity, plasticity, and local adaptation of landraces of important crops (e.g., maize and chile pepper)) and Objective 2 (Discern how crop diversity responds to historic and current human-mediated and natural selection, including by environmental variation), I accomplished a number of things in 2017-2018. I coauthored a paper on chile pepper diversity in Mexico vs a global collection that found that while most of the Mexican collections clustered together, there were some types that were as differentiated as that which was found in the global collection. In my AFRI-funded research on chile pepper and adaptation to abiotic stresses that investigates connections between genetic, phenotypic, and climatic variation, we advanced our collections of chile pepper landraces from throughout Mexico and began our crosses. This year three graduate students and three undergraduates working in this area. One graduate student, who spent part of the last year in Mexico, developed three dissertation chapters, one of which is near submission. In particular, she wrote up her experiments concerning the responses of diverse chile landraces from Mexico to manipulated drought treatments at the seed and mature plant stages. In a laboratory experiment on germination she noted that germination behavior was heavily influenced by the kind of system in which the plant had grown (plantation vs. backyard vs. wild), as well as the environmental conditions from which it came. When data from a greenhouse study on seedling growth and maturation and environmental data were both paired with genetic data, she found 12-15 candidate loci that look promising in their potential to govern responses to drought in chile peppers. My lab also researched the adaptation of maize landraces to environmental gradients and I published an important paper in this area (Mercer and Perales 2018) in which I noted the importance of flowering time variation and flowering capacity for adaptation. A graduate student and an undergrad analyzed biochemical data to help us understand the biochemistry underlying adaptation. That data showed that while environmental conditions in the field have clearly affected the chemical signatures that plants produced, it is less clear whether those signatures depend on the zone of adaptation of those plants. One additional manuscript was submitted in this area and three more were written as dissertation chapters for one graduate student. Finally, I finalized the book chapter resulting from my invited participation in an Ernst Strüngmann Forum entitled, Agrobiodiversity in the 21st Century: Foundations and Integration for Sustainability, held in Germany. The book remains in press. For Objective 3 (Determine how management of genetic diversity and agroecosystems may affect ecosystem services and resilience to climatic and land use change), I continued to engage in agroecological research in Belize which queries patterns of land use change in subsistence Maya farm systems. A graduate student, on whose committee I serve, continued his significant field research on soil and vegetative aspects of agricultural change. He is finding that farmers in Belize have more diversity of maize than we had expected, but it remains to be seen whether the diversity will be helpful as climate changes. Farmers are also poised to begin utilizing more cover crops to improve their soil quality and yields.
Publications
- Type:
Book Chapters
Status:
Awaiting Publication
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Mercer, K.L., Y. Vigouroux, N.P. Casta�eda-�lvarez, S. de Haan, R.J. Hijmans, C. Leclerc, D. McKey, and S.Vanek. Crop evolutionary agroecology: genetic and functional dimensions of agrobiodiversity and associated knowledge. In press in S. de Haan and K. Zimmerer (eds.), Agrobiodiversity in the 21st Century: Foundations and Integration for Sustainability. Ernst Str�ngmann Forum: Germany.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Mercer, K. L. and J. D. Wainwright. 2018. Science in the storm: Reflections on politics and plant sciences today. Human Geography 11:3.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Mercer, K.L. and H.R. Perales. 2018. Structure of local adaptation across the landscape: flowering time and fitness in Mexican maize (Zea mays L. ssp. mays) landraces. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution. doi: 10.1007/s10722-018-0693-7
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Taitano, N., V. Bernau*, L. Jard�n-Barbolla, B. Leckie, M. Mazourek, K. Mercer, L. McHale, A. Michel, D. Baumler, M. Kantar, and E. Vanderknaap. 2018. Genome-wide genotyping of novel Mexican chile pepper collection illuminates the history of landrace differentiation after Capsicum annuum L. domestication. Evolutionary Applications. doi: org/10.1111/eva.12651
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Mercer, K.L. 2018. Towards evolutionary agroecology. Interdisciplina 6(14): 51-68.
|
Progress 10/01/16 to 09/30/17
Outputs
Target Audience:The work from Objectives 1 and 2 serves the academic community interested agrobiodiversity generally, genetic diversity in crops, and the ways that past use and environment influence their diversity, as well as the farmers utilizing landrace diversity in their cropping systems. This is of additional interest to the international NGO and research institute community around the globe working with landraces, as well as regulators and other interested parties. Objective 3 serves both the academic community interested in how genetic diversity affects ecosystem services and resilience to climate and land use change. The discussions of climate change also interest those interested in the topic, including working in the policy arena. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Both graduate students received one-on-one mentorship from me and from other committee members on their research. One graduate student spent a year in Guatemala and Mexico doing research and learning about how to operate internationally. My graduate students and I attended an international meeting together, and one student attended multiple others. We had two students working closely with my graduate students, independent research projects. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We primarily disseminated our work through publication of our research results in peer reviewed journals, as well as through professional conferences. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?For objectives 1 and 2, as we will continue with data analysis and manuscript preparation, especially with graduate students. We will also initiate research on this new AFRI grant, which will involve a range of collections of chile pepper accessions from across Mexico's diverse environmental conditions. We will also make crosses for the genetic work that is planned. As the lead PI, I will oversee all the research and hope to bring on a new graduate student and undergraduate for the project. For objective 3, we will report our interim findings to the Maya communities in Belize with which we work. Also, I will advise on the data analysis and collaborate on the writing of papers on agroecological dynamics in Maya farming systems. We will initiate maize evaluation plots and a trial on cover crop use. Finally, we will submit a proposal for further funding.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
For Objective 1 (Explore the geographic patterns of molecular and quantitative genetic diversity, plasticity, and local adaptation of landraces of important crops (e.g., maize and chile pepper)) and Objective 2 (Discern how crop diversity responds to historic and current human-mediated and natural selection, including by environmental variation), I accomplished a number of things in 2016-2017. I wrote a grant proposal to AFRI on chile pepper and adaptation to abiotic stresses, which has since been recommended for funding. This proposed work will investigate connections between genetic, phenotypic, and climatic variation to help discern geographic patterns of adaptive diversity and identify loci involved in abiotic stress tolerance. This year I had two graduate students and one undergraduate working in this area. One graduate student, who has spent the last year in Guatemala and Mexico, has two dissertation chapters under preparation. In particular, she completed experiments to understand the responses of diverse chile landraces from Mexico to manipulated drought treatments. In a laboratory experiment on germination she noted that germination behavior was heavily influenced by the kind of system in which the plant had grown (plantation vs. backyard vs. wild), as well as the environmental conditions from which it came. When data from a greenhouse study on seedling growth and maturation was preliminarily paired with genetic data, she found more than 100 candidate loci controlling responses to drought in chile peppers. My lab also researched maize landraces, their adaptation to environmental gradients, and genetic loci that are likely involved in those adaptations. As follow up to some field work, a graduate student and an undergrad performed biochemical tests to help us understand the biochemistry underlying adaptation. That data is still under analysis, but preliminary results are perplexing. While environmental conditions in the field have clearly affected the chemical signatures that plants produced, it is less clear whether those signatures depend on the zone of adaptation of those plants. Perhaps environmental variation in the field overwhelmed any signature of adaptation. One manuscript was published (Kost et al. 2017) and at least four others are under development as dissertation chapters for my graduate students or other articles. Finally, I had the opportunity to discuss these kinds of ideas and many more through my invited participation in an Ernst Strüngmann Forum entitled, Agrobiodiversity in the 21st Century: Foundations and Integration for Sustainability, held in Germany. As rapporteur of my evolutionary ecology subgroup, I was the first author on our resulting book chapter, currently under review. For Objective 3 (Determine how management of genetic diversity and agroecosystems may affect ecosystem services and resilience to climatic and land use change), I co-PIed a grant proposal to further expand agroecological research in Belize investigated patterns of land use change in subsistence Maya farm systems. Another graduate student, on whose committee I serve, continued his significant field research on soil and vegetative aspects of agricultural change. He has found a significant effect of fallow length on grass weed intrusion and had preliminary data indicating that greater burning and shorter fallows reduce soil quality.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Mercer, K.L. Towards evolutionary agroecology. Forthcoming in Interdisciplina.
- Type:
Book Chapters
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Mercer, K.L., Y. Vigouroux, N.P. Casta�eda-�lvarez, S. de Haan, R.J. Hijmans, C. Leclerc, D. McKey, and S.Vanek. Crop evolutionary agroecology: genetic and functional dimensions of agrobiodiversity and associated knowledge. Under review in S. de Haan and K. Zimmerer (eds.), Agrobiodiversity in the 21st Century: Foundations and Integration for Sustainability. Ernst Str�ngmann Forum: Germany.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Submitted
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Mercer, K.L. and H.R. Perales. Structure of local adaptation across the landscape: flowering time and fitness in Mexican maize landraces. In revision for Evolutionary Applications.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Submitted
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Taitano, N., V. Bernau*, L. Jard�n-Barbolla, B. Leckie, M. Mazourek, K. Mercer, L. McHale, A. Michel, D. Baumler, M. Kantar, and E. Vanderknaap. Genome-wide genotyping of novel Mexican chile pepper collection illuminates the history of landrace differentiation after Capsicum annuum L. domestication. Under review in Evolutionary Applications.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Kost, M.A., H.R. Perales, S. Wijeratne, A.J. Wijeratne, E. Stockinger and K.L. Mercer. 2017. Differentiated transcriptional signatures in the maize landraces of Chiapas, Mexico. BMC Genomics 18:707. doi: 10.1186/s12864-017-4005-y
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Campbell, L. G., K. Shukla, M. E. Sneck, C. A. Chaplin, and K. L. Mercer. 2016. The effect of altered soil moisture on hybridization rate in a crop-wild system (Raphanus spp.). PLOS ONE 11(12): e0166802. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0166802
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Pace, B., H.A. Alexander, D.J. Emery, K.L. Mercer. 2016. Reliable method for assessing seed germination, dormancy, and mortality under field conditions. Journal of Visualized Experiments 117: e54663 doi:10.3791/54663 (Written and video components)
|
Progress 10/01/15 to 09/30/16
Outputs
Target Audience:The work from Objectives 1 and 2 serves the academic community interested in genetic diversity in crops and the ways that past use and environment influence their diversity, as well as the farmers utilizing landrace diversity in their cropping systems. This is of additional interest to the international NGO and research institute community working around the globe with landraces, as well as regulators and other interested parties. Objective 3 serves both the academic community interested in how genetic diversity affects ecosystem services and resilience to climate and land use change. The discussions of climate change also interest those interested in the topic, including working in the policy arena. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Both graduate students received one-on-one mentorship from me and from other committee members on their research. One graduate student spent a year in Mexico doing research and learning about how to operate internationally. Another student attended two conferences, as well as a summer institute on agricultural development. We had four students working closely with my graduate students, two on independent research projects. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We primarily disseminated our work through publication of our research results in peer reviewed journals, as well as through professional conferences. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?For objectives 1 and 2, as we continue with data analysis and manuscript preparation and one graduate student will be generating new biochemical data from previously completed field and laboratory experiments. Another will initiate new research in Guatemala on chile and maize adaptation to drought. I expect one undergraduate to graduate with Research Distinction as a result of completion of his thesis project. For objective 3, I will spend time in Belize investigating Maya farming systems, especially vegetative patterns and potential for increasing agrobiodiversity.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
For Objective 1 (Explore the geographic patterns of molecular and quantitative genetic diversity, plasticity, and local adaptation of landraces of important crops (e.g., maize and chile pepper)) and Objective 2 (Discern how crop diversity responds to historic and current human-mediated and natural selection, including by environmental variation), I had a number of accomplishments during 2015-2016. I submitted two grant proposals on chile pepper and adaptation to abiotic stresses (one granted, one pending). This proposed work will investigate connections between genetic, phenotypic, and climatic variation to help discern geographic patterns of adaptive diversity and identify loci involved in abiotic stress tolerance. Thus, I did much thinking in this arena and my graduate student has been working hard in this area. I also have been working on data analysis and writing of 4 papers on maize landraces, their adaptation to environmental gradients, and genetic loci that are likely involved in those adaptations. Finally, I have another graduate student who performed experiments on maize in Mexico during this time, looking at patterns of adaptation to elevation at a fine scale, as well as early season seedling characteristics. Some of those data are being analyzed and further biochemical tests performed thatwill help us understand the biochemistry underlying adaptation. For Objective 3 (Determine how management of genetic diversity and agroecosystems may affect ecosystem services and resilience to climatic and land use change), I co-authored two papers. First, work in Belize investigated patterns of land use change in subsistence Maya farm systems and considered the implications of a new highway through the region for agricultural change. Another student on whose committee I serve has initiated significant field research on the topic and is investigating, among other things, soil and vegetative aspects of agricultural change. Second, research in ecological restoration investigated the ways that production of propagules for restoration can affect their genetic diversity, which may affect ecosystem function.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Kantar, M. B., J. E. Anderson, S. A. Lucht, K. L. Mercer, V. Bernau*, K. A. Case, N. C. Le, M. K. Frederiksen, H. C. DeKeyser, Z. Wong, J. C. Hastings, and D. J. Baumler. 2016. Vitamin variation in Capsicum spp. provides opportunities to improve nutritional value of human diets. PLOS ONE 11(8): e0161464. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0161464
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Espeland, E. K., N. C. Emery, K. L. Mercer, S. A. Woolbright, K. M. Kettenring, P. Gepts, and J. R. Etterson. 2016. Evolution of plant materials for restoration: Insights from the applied and basic evolutionary literature. Journal of Applied Ecology. doi: 10.1111/1365-2664.12739
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Kost, M.A.*, H.M. Alexander, H.M., D. J. Emry, and K.L. Mercer. 2015. Life history traits and phenotypic selection among sunflower cropwild hybrids and their wild counterpart: implications for crop allele introgression. Evolutionary Applications 8: 510-524.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
Wainwright, J.D., S. Jiang, K. Mercer, and D. Liu. 2015. The political ecology of a highway through Belizes forested borderlands. Environment and Planning A 47: 833-849.
|
|