Contrasting Oak Responses to Water Stress - Osmolyte Profiling Across Species
Start Date
15-4-2021 3:30 PM
End Date
15-4-2021 4:30 PM
Student's Major
Biological Sciences
Student's College
Science, Engineering and Technology
Mentor's Name
Matthew Kaproth
Mentor's Department
Biological Sciences
Mentor's College
Science, Engineering and Technology
Description
This is an evolutionary biology project, using analytical chemistry, looking at oak species responses to water stress. Species must be able to adapt to their environment when water is limited. In plants, one mechanism to deal with water stress is to decrease its water potential by producing organic and inorganic solutes within cells. These organic and inorganic solutes can be classified as osmolytes. Non-structural carbohydrates (NSCs) osmolytes were the focus point of this experiment. Two hypotheses were proposed; 1) The sister species will have adapted similar osmolyte responses to drought stress, distant relatives would have a different profile of osmolytes; or 2) Species sharing the same climatic niche will have adapted similar osmolyte responses to drought stress, species from different climate niche would have a different osmolyte profiles. Plants were grown in a common garden with two different water treatments to replicate drought and mesic conditions. Leaf tissue was then harvested and went through ethanol extractions to obtain NSCs. 5 NSCs were able to be profiled using high performance liquid chromatography. Oak species were grouped into red and white clades, as well as an outgroup group for unrelated species. Statistical differences were observed in NSC/total osmolyte content based on evolutionary relatedness.
Contrasting Oak Responses to Water Stress - Osmolyte Profiling Across Species
This is an evolutionary biology project, using analytical chemistry, looking at oak species responses to water stress. Species must be able to adapt to their environment when water is limited. In plants, one mechanism to deal with water stress is to decrease its water potential by producing organic and inorganic solutes within cells. These organic and inorganic solutes can be classified as osmolytes. Non-structural carbohydrates (NSCs) osmolytes were the focus point of this experiment. Two hypotheses were proposed; 1) The sister species will have adapted similar osmolyte responses to drought stress, distant relatives would have a different profile of osmolytes; or 2) Species sharing the same climatic niche will have adapted similar osmolyte responses to drought stress, species from different climate niche would have a different osmolyte profiles. Plants were grown in a common garden with two different water treatments to replicate drought and mesic conditions. Leaf tissue was then harvested and went through ethanol extractions to obtain NSCs. 5 NSCs were able to be profiled using high performance liquid chromatography. Oak species were grouped into red and white clades, as well as an outgroup group for unrelated species. Statistical differences were observed in NSC/total osmolyte content based on evolutionary relatedness.
