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Gathering the seeds of new science

by JTGP Admin 1 Comment
Gathering the seeds of new science
An unopened Joshua tree fruit with seeds behind it. Some aren’t in this nice of a condition. Predation by the moth larvae and other grubs is common (Olivia Turner)

As the Joshua Tree Genome Project kicks off its NSF-funded study of climate adaptation in our favorite spiky desert plants, we’re posting updates on the progress of our work. Today we have a blog post from Olivia Turner, one of four interns with the Chicago Botanic Garden who’re working with JTGP collaborators Lesley DeFalco and Todd Esque to plant thousands of Joshua tree seedlings in experimental common gardens. This post was originally published on the website of the CBG’s internship program.

Hi all! This is Olivia. I am part of a 4 person intern team here on the Mojave Desert, NV working with the USGS on the Joshua Tree Genome Project.

This project is in collaboration with a handful of academic partners from all over the States and our mentors here in Nevada are among the Principle Investigators because they were some of the first scientists to ever investigate the life cycle, reproduction, demography, and the effects of climate change on Joshua trees!

So, why the JTGP?

Joshua trees are an icon of the Mojave, provide food for a large range of desert organisms, and have an incredible relationship with their obligate moth pollinators. Both organisms have a long co-evolutionary history together which is known to result in Joshua tree population differentiation. Given the changes in climate that are projected for the Mojave and surrounding areas, the JT is now also going to be facing selection based on abiotic factors.

Therefore, the Joshua Tree Genome Project was created with the goal of examining the Joshua tree’s local adaptation to climate, with the purpose of exploring the primary source of selection across populations (climate [abiotic] vs. pollinator driven population differentiation [biotic]). This will be done by identify ecophysiological traits that determine seedling tolerance to climate change and the genes that structure these traits (Project Proposal, 2020). Crazy cool! It is a multi-year study and we have the good fortune of being here right at the start. Oh, and of course, this project also involves sequencing, for the first time, the Joshua tree genome.

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JTGP collaborator Chris Smith profiled on Tucson.com

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Tucson.com, the online edition of the Arizona Daily Star, has a big new profile of Joshua Tree Genome Project collaborator, and now lead PI on the collaborative NSF grant supporting the project, Chris Smith. Smith grew up in Tucson and earned his undergrad degree at the University of Arizona, and the article goes in-depth on his longtime love of desert landscapes and the organisms that make a living in them:

Smith’s early work focused on yucca plants in isolated desert mountain ranges known as “sky islands” and the cactus longhorn beetle, a strange flightless bug that feeds on prickly pear and cholla in northern Mexico and the Southwestern U.S.

Then he met renowned evolutionary biologist Nils Olof Pellmyr, who steered him toward the fascinating bond between Joshua trees and the highly specialized yucca moths that live on them.

(“Olle” Pellmyr, who passed away in 2017, also mentored JTGP collaborators Jim Leebens-Mack and Jeremy Yoder.)

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LISTEN: Collaborators Chris Smith and Jeremy Yoder on Nevada Public Radio

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Joshua Tree Genome Project collaborators Chris Smith and Jeremy Yoder were on today’s episode of Nevada Public Radio’s “State of Nevada” news show, talking Joshua tree history, natural history, and genomics with host Doug Puppel. You can catch the rebroadcast of the episode tonight at 7pm, or stream the segment on demand on the KNPR website.

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The Joshua Tree Genome Project gets big boost with NSF funding

by JTGP Admin 2 Comments
Joshua trees in Tikaboo Valley, Nevada (Jeremy Yoder)

New collaborative grants from the National Science Foundation will support the Joshua Tree Genome Project in studying how one of the most distinctive plants in the Mojave Desert has adapted to the drought and heat of its home range, how extreme desert climates shape the trees’ peculiar relationship with pollen-carrying moths, and how the genetic information within genomes is re-organized over millions of years.

The grants to Willamette University and California State University Northridge, totaling more than $1.5 million, will pay for the assembly of a Joshua tree reference genome and extensive tests of Joshua tree seedlings in experimental gardens. From this, it will be possible to identify genes that help the trees cope with different climate conditions, and pinpoint how different environmental factors have affected their evolution. To conduct the work, the grants will support research experiences for undergraduate students and interns, graduate student thesis projects, and the expansion of a pilot program in which community volunteers across the Mojave learn to map and monitor Joshua tree populations in their own backyards.

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Watch JTGP collaborators discuss the project’s progress, and where it’s headed

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Last week, Joshua Tree Genome Project collaborators Chris Smith and Jeremy Yoder spoke in a webinar series given by the Joshua Tree National Park Association’s Desert Institute. The talk ended up being a good overview of our plans for the JTGP, as well as an update on the work of assembling a Joshua tree reference genome. So when the Desert Institute posted the video on their YouTube channel, we thought we’d share it here:

Enjoy! And check out the rest of the Desert Institute video catalog, which includes all sorts of great natural history about Joshua Tree National Park and the Mojave Desert.

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