The Evolutionary Genetics of a Mate Recognition Cue: Male Song in Hawiian Crickets

物种的起源一直是一个中心问题， 从达尔文开始就一直在进化生物学中。 尽管我们伟大的 自然选择和适应知识的进步 在一个物种中，仍然存在很多争议， 物种的意义，新物种的机制， 起源，以及负责这些特征的遗传基础 定义一个新物种 研究人员建议研究这些 夏威夷蟋蟀属中雄性鸣叫的问题 劳帕拉 目前已知有37种 属 这些物种往往看起来很像，但它们有很大的不同 在雄鸟鸣叫的声音之间的时间间隔。 它 有人提出，雄性的歌声被雌性用来识别 潜在的伴侣 如果这是真的，男性的歌声在 定义了这些蟋蟀的物种界限 他们将 通过使用分子遗传学调查技术来验证这一假设 来定义具有相似基因的蟋蟀种群。 他们 然后看看基因相似的种群是否也有一个 共同的歌 有了同样的分子数据， 重建所有物种的进化树 这 进化树将允许他们估计歌曲如何 在物种之间进化。 这些分子数据也将用于测试 假设DNA进化的速度加快时， 新物种出现在与其祖先不同的岛屿上， 在夏威夷的果蝇中也发现了。 这些数据 也将被用来检验这一假设，即不同的歌曲， 在一个物种内的当地种群中促进遗传 分化 最后，因为他们能成功地穿越 物种在实验室中，他们将研究的遗传基础 使用传统育种的物种之间的歌曲差异 分析以及现代分子技术来绘制和 识别基因。 最后的研究不仅能让他们 解决遗传类型的进化问题 一个物种之间的差异，但它也将直接 传统方法与分子方法的比较 遗传分析：一个与许多人相关的比较 应用于健康科学。

The origin of species has been a central question in evolutionary biology ever since Darwin. Despite our great advances in knowledge about natural selection and adaptation within a species, there still remains much controversy over the meaning of species, the mechanisms by which new species originate, and the genetic basis of the traits responsible for defining a new species. The investigators propose to study these issues with male calling song in the Hawaiian cricket genus Laupala. There are currently 37 recognized species in this genus. The species tend to look alike, but they differ greatly in the time interval between sounds in the male calling song. It has been proposed that male song is used by females to identify potential mates. If true, male song would be important in defining the species boundaries of these crickets. They will test this hypothesis by using molecular genetic survey techniques to define populations of crickets that share similar genes. They will then see if genetically similar populations also share a common song. With the same molecular data they will also reconstruct an evolutionary tree of all the species. This evolutionary tree will allow them to estimate how the songs have evolved between species. These molecular data will also be used to test the hypothesis that the rate of DNA evolution is accelerated when a new species arises on a different island than its ancestor, as has been found for Hawaiian fruit flies (Drosophila). These data will also be used to test the hypothesis that differences in song among local populations within a species promote genetic differentiation. Finally, because they can successfully cross species in the laboratory, they will study the genetic basis of the song differences between species using traditional breeding analysis as well as modern molecular techniques to map and identify genes. This last study will not only allow them to address the evolutionary question of the types of genetic differences that arise among a species, but it will also a direct comparison of the traditional versus molecular approaches to genetic analysis: a comparison that is relevant to many applications in the health sciences.