title: Project Baseline: An unprecedented resource to study plant evolution across space and time.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Project Baseline is a seed bank that offers an unprecedented opportunity to examine spatial and temporal dimensions of microevolution during an era of rapid environmental change. Over the upcoming 50 years, biologists will withdraw genetically representative samples of past populations from this time capsule of seeds and grow them contemporaneously with modern samples to detect any phenotypic and molecular evolution that has occurred during the intervening time.
  
  
  METHODS
  We carefully developed this living genome bank using protocols to enhance its experimental value by collecting from multiple populations and species across a broad geographical range in sites that are likely to be preserved into the future. Seeds are accessioned with site and population data and are stored by maternal line under conditions that maximize seed longevity. This open-access resource will be available to researchers at regular intervals to evaluate contemporary evolution.
  
  
  RESULTS
  To date, the Project Baseline collection includes 100-200 maternal lines of each of 61 species collected from over 831 populations on sites that are likely to be preserved into the future across the United States (∼78,000 maternal lines). Our strategically designed collection circumvents some problems that can cloud the results of "resurrection" studies involving naturally preserved or existing seed collections that are available fortuitously.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The resurrection approach can be coupled with long-established and newer techniques over the next five decades to elucidate genetic change and thereby vastly improve our understanding of temporal and spatial changes in phenotype and the evolutionary processes underlying it.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Minnesota Duluth, 207A Swenson Science Building, 1035 Kirby Drive, Duluth, Minnesota 55812 USA jetterso@d.umn.edu.
authors.forename: Julie R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Etterson
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, 441 East Fordham Road, Fordham University, Bronx, New York 10458 USA.
authors.forename: Steven J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Franks
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Evolution & Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California 93106 USA.
authors.forename: Susan J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Mazer
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, 1479 Gortner Avenue, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, St. Paul, Minnesota 55108 USA.
authors.forename: Ruth G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Shaw
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Minnesota Duluth, 207A Swenson Science Building, 1035 Kirby Drive, Duluth, Minnesota 55812 USA.
authors.forename: Nicole L Soper
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Gorden
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Evolution & Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California 93106 USA.
authors.forename: Heather E
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, 441 East Fordham Road, Fordham University, Bronx, New York 10458 USA.
authors.forename: Jennifer J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Weber
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Minnesota Duluth, 207A Swenson Science Building, 1035 Kirby Drive, Duluth, Minnesota 55812 USA.
authors.forename: Katharine J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Winkler
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Koffler Scientific Reserve at Jokers Hill, 25 Willcocks Street, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 3B2.
authors.forename: Arthur E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Weis
mesh_terms: D005075:Biological Evolution; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D018745:Genome, Plant; D005843:Geography; D019684:Magnoliopsida / Q000235:genetics*; D010641:Phenotype; D000068098:Seed Bank; D012639:Seeds / Q000235:genetics
keywords: climate change; geographic variation; natural selection; phenotypic evolution; population differentiation; resurrection ecology; seed bank; species range