Investigation of patterns and processes in the evolution of mycoheterotrophy of plants

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24370040
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Biodiversity/Systematics
• Research Institution: National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: YUKAWA Tomohisa 独立行政法人国立科学博物館, 植物研究部, グループ長 (50280524)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): UENO Osamu 九州大学, 大学院農学研究院, 教授 (70414886) ; IMAICHI Ryoko 日本女子大学, 理学部, 教授 (60112752)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): OKUYAMA Yudai 独立行政法人国立科学博物館, 植物研究部, 研究員 (40522529) ; TSUTSUMI Chie 独立行政法人国立科学博物館, 植物研究部, 研究員 (30455422) ; HOSAKA Kentaro 独立行政法人国立科学博物館, 植物研究部, 研究員 (10509417)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 菌根 / 進化 / 共生 / 植物 / 従属栄養 / 寄生 / 光合成 / 菌類

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We analyzed changes of characters in association with the evolution of mycoheterotrophy by using pairs of mycoheterotrophs and its autotrophic sister species from several plant groups and estimated patterns and processes in the evolution of mycoheterotrophy. The results showed that communities of fungal partners change in the course of the evolution from autotrophy to mycoheterotrophy in plants and that convergence of fungal partners occurs in distantly related mycoheterotrophs. These results suggest that selection of fungal partners optimizing nutrition process of a plant acts as key innovation in the evolution of mycoheterotrophy.

Free Research Field

植物系統分類学