Gene Flow, Dispersal and Systematic Relationships of Molluscs Associated with Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents

这些研究的主要目的是确定 生物扩散的机制和基因流动的速率 深海热液喷口区 和非毗连洋脊系统。 稍等，但是 这些研究的另一个重要目标是界定 它们之间的遗传界限和系统关系 一套软体动物物种占据了这些不寻常的深海 环境. 由于热液喷口数量众多， 同类的，同类的，也许是同种的软体动物 分类群与某些冷水硫化物/甲烷渗漏，后者 环境也将被调查作为额外的来源， 海脊热液系统的幼虫补充。 Lutz博士和Vjrienhoek博士将对软体动物群进行采样 与一些地理上分离的喷口有关， 东太平洋、墨西哥湾和 沿着大西洋中脊。 他们将使用电泳 和分子技术来检验三个离散模型 （“岛屿”、“线性踏脚石”和“水库”） 深海种群结构、定殖和基因流动 喷口种群 形态特征与 将分析幼年软体动物壳，以推断 从各喷口取样的物种的幼虫发育情况， 渗透栖息地。 从这些分析中得出的推论应 为喷口/渗漏的近似排序提供依据 软体动物物种根据传播能力。 而这 转，再加上基因研究，应该允许我们 测试的有效性的几个最近的假设， 不同生命史的进化结果 与生物体谱相关的策略 在深海喷口和渗漏处遇到。

The primary objective of these studies is to ascertain mechanisms of organism dispersal and rates of gene flow between deep-sea hydrothermal vent fields associated with contiguious and non-contiguous oceanic ridge systems. A second, but equally important objective of these studies will be to delimit the genetic boundaries and systematic relationships among the suite of molluscan species occupying these unusual abyssal environments. As hydrothermal vents share significant numbers of confamilial, congeneric and perhaps conspecific molluscan taxa with certain cold-water sulfide/methane seeps, the later environments will also be investigated as additional sources of larval recruitment to the ridge hydrothermal systems. Drs. Lutz and Vjrienhoek will sample the molluscan fauna associated with a number of geographically-separated vent and seep sites in the eastern Pacific, the Gulf of Mexico and along the mid-Atlantic Ridge. They will use electrophoretic and molecular techniques to examine three discrete models ("island" "linear stepping-stone", and "reservoir") of population structure, colonization, and gene flow in deep-sea vent populations. Morphological features associated with juvenile molluscan shells will be analyzed to infer modes of larval development of species sampled from the various vent and seep habitats. Inferences drawn from such analyses should provide a basis for an approximate rank-ordering of vent/seep molluscan species according to dispersal capability. This, in turn, when coupled with genetic studies, should permit us a test of the validity of several recent hypotheses concerning the evolutionary consequences of different life-history strategies associated with the spectrum of organisms encountered at deep-sea vents and seeps.