Molecular Genetic Techniques: Testing Reproductive Success (Career Advancement Award)

行为生态学领域最近最令人兴奋的进展之一是应用分子遗传技术来回答有关种群中不同类别个体的相对繁殖成功率的关键问题。对早期研究结果的进化解释不得不依赖于对交配模式的各种假设，其中一些假设后来被这些新技术证明是错误的。我建议学习使用这些技术（尤其是DNA指纹），这样我就可以回答蜥蜴行为生态学研究中的亲子关系问题，蜥蜴是一组目前在行为生态学文献中代表性不足但非常适合此类研究的生物。爬行动物是连接变温脊椎动物和繁殖性陆生脊椎动物的桥梁，是比较交配系统和社会行为进化的重要类群。在国家动物园遗传学实验室学习这些技术后，我计划进行一项关于替代交配策略的行为学研究，然后进行父权分析。亲子鉴定将在通用的进化与生态遗传学实验室进行，该实验室目前正在新密歇根州立大学的生物学领域进行开发，并将测试我的能力。

One of the most exciting recent advances in the field of behavioral ecology is the application of molecular genetic techniques to answer critical questions concerning relative reproductive success of various classes of individuals in populations. Evolutionary interpretations of results of early studies have had to rely on various assumptions about mating patterns, some of which have subsequently been shown to be erroneous using these new techniques. I propose to learn to use these techniques (especially DNA fingerprinting) so that I may answer questions of paternity for studies on the behavioral ecology of lizards, a group of organisms currently under-represented in the behavioral ecology literature yet well-suited to such studies. Reptiles are an important group to include in comparative studies of the evolution of mating systems and social behavior since they represent a bridge between the ectothermic vertebrates and the reproductively terrestrial vertebrates. After learning these techniques at the Genetics Laboratory of the National Zoo, I plan to undertake a behavioral study on alternative mating tactics, followed by paternity analysis. The paternity analysis would take place in the common-use Laboratory of Evolutionary and Ecological Genetics, currently under development in Biology at NMSU, and would test my ability.