PYI: Development of an Integrated Developmental and Evolutionary Model for a Marine Organism

在南加州大学工作的埃姆莱特博士将探讨进化过程中发育和自然选择如何相互作用的问题。他计划为海洋生物创建第一个综合的发展和进化模型，这可以提供关于为什么一些生物多样化而另一些生物没有，以及环境变化如何影响生物的短期和长期变化的见解。利用一种海胆物种作为模式生物，以及他开发的在海胆化石中推断幼虫发育模式的技术，埃姆莱特博士将确定一种特定类型的幼虫进食的地点和时间是否符合为这种类型的发育选择的环境条件。他还将分析幼虫调停形状和模式的变化对游泳成绩的功能影响。这项实验工作将首次定量地确定在发展模式演变过程中被修改的发展过程的功能需求。将历史方法和功能方法结合起来，可能会显示自然选择如何以及何时通过环境变化或功能形态要求来控制发育模式。历史分析还可能表明，发展模式是否会影响以多样化比率衡量的进化成功。

Dr. Emlet, working at the University of Southern California, will address the question of how development and natural selection interact during evolution. He plans to create the first integrated developmental and evolutionary model for a marine organism, which could provide insights into why some organisms have diversified while others have not, as well as how environmental changes effect short and long term changes in organisms. Using a sea urchin species as a model organism and techniques he developed to infer mode of larval development in fossil urchins, Dr. Emlet will determine if the places and times that a particular type of larval feeding evolved correspond with environmental conditions that are expected to select for this type of development. He will also analyze the functional consequences of changes in shape and patterns of larval ciliation on swimming performance. This experimental work will be the first to determine quantitatively the functional requirements for developmental processes which are modified during evolutionary changes in mode of development. Combining historical and functional approaches may show how and when natural selection acts through environmental change or functional morphological requirements to control developmental patterns. Historical analyses may also show whether developmental patterns influence evolutionary success, measured as diversification rate.