Molecular Analyses of Historical and Contemporary Gene Flow in Marine Species

DNA 分析的分子方法将用于检查全球分布的几种海洋物种种群之间的遗传相关性。 我们将特别关注海龟，因为长期以来，人们对海龟群居的历史时期、雌性是否返回出生地筑巢以及雄性和雌性群落之间的遗传接触程度等问题都存在疑问。 这种对海龟生命史的分子评估将为海龟群体的人口独立程度提供证据，这对于制定这些濒临灭绝物种的种群管理策略至关重要。 类似的分子遗传学分析还将对全球分布的海洋鸟类进行，这些海洋鸟类可能表现出与海龟有些相似的生活史和迁徙模式。 对这些海洋物种和其他海洋物种的核基因和线粒体基因进行 DNA 分析，将提供难以直接观察的生物体迁徙模式的知识。 这些数据还将有助于历史的发展，其中独立基因谱系之间的一致性程度被提议作为人口分离历史程度的指标。

Molecular methods of DNA analysis will be employed to examine the genetic relatedness among populations of several marine species that have global distributions. Special attention will be devoted to marine turtles, where longstanding questions exist concerning the historical times of rookery colonization, whether females return to their natal sites to nest, and the degree of genetic contact among rookeries involving both males and females. This molecular appraisal of the life history of marine turtles will offer evidence on the degree of demographic independence among turtle colonies that should be critical in the development of populaton management strategies for these endangered species. Similar molecular genetic assays will also be conducted on globally-distributed oceanic birds, which may prove to exhibit life history and migrational patterns somewhat analogous to those of the marine turtles. Assays of DNA from both the nuclear and mitochondrial genes in these and other marine species will provide knowledge of migratory patterns in organisms that are difficult to observe directly. The data will also contribute to development of a history in which the degree of concordance among the genealogies of independent genes is proposed as an indicator of the historical magnitudes of population separations.