Example of Funded Proposal

Introduction: Plant galls are insect-induced tumor-like growths of plant tissue which nourish and protect developing gall former larvae (1). Gall inducers are typically host specific (2). The morphology of galls produced is unique to each gall former species and reflects the expression of both insect and host plant genomes (3). For each species of gall inducer, gall size at maturity varies widely both within and among individual plants (4-6). Weis and Abrahamson (3) have shown that this phenotypic variation results, in part, from additive genetic variance for gall size in both insect and plant. Given the genetic basis of size variation, gall size in natural populations may evolve in response to natural selection.