Use of the Homeobox System to Elucidate Metazoan Sister-Group Relationships

使用同源框系统阐明后生动物姐妹群关系

• 批准号: 9119437
• 负责人: Leo Buss
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: Yale University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 1992
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1992-04-15 至 1995-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9119437&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Use; Homeobox; System; Elucidate; Metazoan

Drs. Buss and Ruddle propose to initiate a research program directed at the resolution of the metazoan phyla. The current state of metazoan phylogeny is one of considerable uncertainty, with morphological and molecular data sets supporting conflicting hypotheses. They suggest that examination of Antp-class homeobox genes will prove capable of resolving the principle uncertainties. The extreme conservation of sequence of homeoboxes and their distinctive pattern of genomic organization provide an abundance of characters ideal for higher level phylogenetic analysis. In this proposal, they will re-examine the relationship between annelids and arthropods by characterization of the genomic diversity, organization, and sequences of homeoboxes from crustaceans, chelicerates, arachnids, molluscs, onychophorans, and annelids. Combined with the growing existing database on homeoboxes in cnidarians, nematodes, uniramians, echinoderms and chordates, this work holds the realistic promise of resolving not only the annelid-arthropod relationship, but also of shedding light on the relationships within and between the most speciose protostome and deuterostome phyla. The use of the homeobox system for phylogenetic analysis is particularly compelling because these genes have proved to be central components of the regulatory networks involved in early embryonic pattern formation and specification of cell fate. Thus, as our understanding of the molecular genetics of development grows, it is likely that the information generated in the progress of this research will permit study of the origin of the developmental novelty. To accomplish these goals it will require the collaboration of developmental geneticists and evolutionary biologists.

巴斯博士和拉德尔博士提议启动一项旨在解决后生动物门的研究计划。后生动物系统发育的当前状态是一个相当不确定的状态，形态和分子数据集支持相互矛盾的假设。他们提出，对ANTP类同源框基因的检查将证明能够解决主要的不确定性。同源盒子序列的极端保守性及其独特的基因组组织模式为更高水平的系统发育分析提供了丰富的特征。在这项提案中，他们将通过描述甲壳类、海龟类、蜘蛛类、软体动物、甲壳类和环节动物的同源盒的基因组多样性、组织和序列来重新研究环节动物和节肢动物之间的关系。结合不断增长的关于蛇形动物、线虫、单胞虫、棘皮动物和脊索动物同源盒的现有数据库，这项工作不仅具有解决环节动物-节肢动物关系的现实希望，而且还有助于揭示最特殊的原口动物和后口动物门内部和之间的关系。使用同源盒系统进行系统发育分析特别引人注目，因为这些基因已被证明是参与早期胚胎模式形成和细胞命运指定的调控网络的中心组成部分。因此，随着我们对发育的分子遗传学的理解的加深，在这项研究的进展中产生的信息很可能将使研究发育新颖性的起源成为可能。为了实现这些目标，需要发育遗传学家和进化生物学家的合作。