| NSF Org: |
OISE Office of International Science and Engineering |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | August 12, 2014 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | August 12, 2014 |
| Award Number: | 1427127 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Jessica Robin
jrobin@nsf.gov (703)292-8416 OISE Office of International Science and Engineering O/D Office Of The Director |
| Start Date: | December 1, 2014 |
| End Date: | November 30, 2015 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $39,378.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $39,378.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
2425 CAMPUS RD SINCLAIR RM 1 HONOLULU HI US 96822-2247 (808)956-7800 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
HI US 96822-2234 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Catalyzing New Intl Collab |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.079 |
ABSTRACT
This project addresses a fundamental question in plant biology, how plants deal with environmental stresses, by comparing differing ecological habitats of Hawaii and Mexico. The research focuses on the ecology and physiology of prickly poppy, genus Argemone, which is found in both regions. The project leverages complementary expertise between U.S. and Mexican researchers and provides unique training opportunities to U.S. students from underrepresented groups. U.S. students and researchers will travel to Mexico to join an international collaborative team and gain experience in plant functional trait analysis, herbarium research, and preliminary field data collection.
While most defense traits in plants are multi-functional the majority of studies have examined one or few plant traits at a time. Prickly poppies display a suite of functional traits (e.g. prickles, latex exudation, tough leaves) that make them a compelling case study for this research. This broad approach to investigate multiple plant traits and their multi-functionality within an ontogenetic context will provide a more holistic understanding of how plants deal with environmental stresses. Furthermore this research will uncover synergies, redundancies and developmental constraints in plant functional traits and thereby further understanding of plant biology.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
This award supported travel for the principal investigator, University of Hawaii Botany professor Kasey Barton, to travel to Mexico with 4 UH undergraduate students in March and May 2015. The goal of these trips was to establish a new collaboration with UNAM Biology professor, Karina Boege. For much of the last decade, both Drs. Boege and Barton have been separately investigating how and why plants change their anti-herbivore defenses so dramatically as they grow and develop. This award gave them the opportunity to meet and work together on developing a new shared research path using prickly poppies, genus Argemone, as a model system. Prickly poppies are a compelling group of plants for questions about the evolutionary ecology of plant defense because they are clearly well defended due to their very prickly leaves and stems, and also because they produce toxic alkaloids that is released from wounds in milky sap. Prickly poppies are distributed uniquely between the geographic regions of Drs. Barton and Boege with a center of diversity for this genus in Mexico, with one species endemic to Hawaii.
During the trips to Mexico, Dr. Barton and her undergraduate students met with Dr. Boege and her students to discuss previous work done by Barton’s lab group on the Hawaiian prickly poppy, and about future directions in studying developmental (ontogenetic) changes in plant defense. In addition, to gain more insights into variation among prickly poppy species, which have previously received very little research attention, Dr. Barton and her students spent a week in the UNAM Herbarium collecting data on all prickly poppy specimens. A total of 670 prickly poppy specimens were examined, and data were recorded for the locations of the plants, as well as coarse measures of prickle density and size. Amazingly, prickly poppies are highly variable in the sizes and numbers of prickles they produce on their leaves and stems, with some plants very well armored while others are almost naked, even within the same species. This result was not entirely surprising given that similar variation had been observed by Dr. Barton’s group working on the Hawaiian species, but it opens the door for further investigations into why some prickly poppies are very prickly while others are not.
Following the trip in March to meet with Dr. Boege’s group and to collect herbarium data, PI Barton returned to Mexico again in May with three of the same undergraduate students. After compiling the location data from the herbarium, a road trip was taken with Dr. Boege to find as many prickly poppy species as possible. Driving through 9 Mexican states (Distrito Federal, Hidalgo, Guanajuato, Queretaro, San Luis Potosi, Morelos, Puebla, Oaxaca, and Veracruz), a total of 60 populations representing 5 different prickly poppy species were found. In each population, data were collected for various traits, including prickle densities and milky sap production. When available, some seeds were collected for preliminary trials to test how prickles and alkaloid production change as plants grow from the seedling to juvenile to reproductive stages. This work is currently on-going in Barton’s lab in Hawaii and Boege’s lab in Mexico and represents an exciting new start to this collaboration.
Last Modified: 02/25/2016
Modified by: Kasey Barton
