The Global Urban Evolution Project is an international collaborative project which was started by Marc T. J. Johnson at the Centre for Urban Environments of the

University of Toronto Mississauga The University of Toronto Mississauga (abbreviated as U of T Mississauga or UTM) is the second-largest division of the University of Toronto and one of its three campuses, located in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Established in 1967, the campus ...

(UTM). It includes partners from at least 5 continents, 26 countries, and 160 cities. As a field study of evolution, and as a global study of the effects of urbanization on evolution, its scale is unprecedented. It has been described as "the best replicated test of parallel evolution, on the largest scale ever attempted". The project uses

white clover ''Trifolium repens'', the white clover, is a herbaceous perennial plant in the bean family Fabaceae (otherwise known as Leguminosae). It is native to Europe, including the British Isles, and central Asia and is one of the most widely cultivated ...

as a

model organism A model organism is a non-human species that is extensively studied to understand particular biological phenomena, with the expectation that discoveries made in the model organism will provide insight into the workings of other organisms. Mo ...

for studying global

urbanization Urbanization (or urbanisation in British English) is the population shift from Rural area, rural to urban areas, the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas, and the ways in which societies adapt to this change. ...

and

urban evolution Urban evolution refers to the heritable genetic changes of populations in response to urban development and anthropogenic activities in urban areas. Urban evolution can be caused by non-random mating, mutation, genetic drift, gene flow, or evolution ...

. White clover was chosen because it already grew in most cities worldwide. It examines the plant's production of

hydrogen cyanide Hydrogen cyanide (formerly known as prussic acid) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula, formula HCN and structural formula . It is a highly toxic and flammable liquid that boiling, boils slightly above room temperature, at . HCN is ...

(HCN) in urban and more rural environments ("urban-rural

clines Clines is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Gene Clines (1946–2022), American baseball player and coach *Hoyt Franklin Clines (1956–1994), American murderer *Mike Clines (fl 2022), American politician *Peter Clines (born 1969 ...

"). Hydrogen cyanide deters

herbivores A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically evolved to feed on plants, especially upon vascular tissues such as foliage, fruits or seeds, as the main component of its diet. These more broadly also encompass animals that eat ...

and increases clover's tolerance for water stress. The project has demonstrated that urban environments are altering the ways in which plants evolve locally, and that similar changes are occurring globally, a demonstration of

parallel evolution Parallel evolution is the similar development of a trait in distinct species that are not closely related, but share a similar original trait in response to similar evolutionary pressure.Zhang, J. and Kumar, S. 1997Detection of convergent and pa ...

. It enables researchers to better understand the nature of urban environments, the adaptive capacity of species, and their ability to deal with rapid global environmental changes.

Project history

In 2018, lead scientist Marc Johnson announced the project by tweeting "We are seeking collaborators to participate in the Global Urban Evolution (GLUE) project, a global study that seeks to understand whether urbanization drives parallel evolution in cities around the world." Co-leaders of the project were Rob Ness and PhD student James Santangelo, all three at University of Toronto Mississauga. The resulting project has involved 287 scientists and over 550 people at various academic levels worldwide. It is an example of inclusive science with a team including equal numbers of women and men from around the world. Sonja Knapp categorizes it as an experimental network and a global experiment with a shared methodology.

Results

The project has collected over 110,000 clover samples and sequenced over 2,500 clover genomes, creating a huge dataset for the study of the species around the globe. Analyzing urban-rural

, scientists found that cyanide production tended to increase with distance from the center of cities, suggesting that clover populations were adapting to factors commonly found in urban centers worldwide. Possible factors could include temperature (freezing is related to cyanide content), herbivory pressures, and drought stress. The research suggests that the downtowns of cities such as

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

may more closely resemble far-flung cities such as

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

as clover habitats than they resemble rural areas located nearby.

References

External links

Global Urban Evolution Project
*Global Urban Evolution Project o
GitHub
{{DEFAULTSORT:Global Urban Evolution Project Collaborative projects Genome databases Open data Open science Scientific organizations based in Canada Evolution of plants Urbanization