Dissertation Research: An Analysis of the Speciation Process in Cave Spiders of the Genus Nesticus

这项研究利用互补的系统发育和 种群遗传信息来推断物种形成模式， 洞穴蜘蛛尼斯提库斯 阿巴拉契亚山脉的食巢蜘蛛 地区是最近分化的，物种丰富的血统， 一个优秀的系统，研究地理和 物种形成的人口背景。 姊妹种 将估计Nesticus的关系，并结合 与其他洞穴生物分支的化石证据， 定义历史地质学和地貌学如何影响 分类多样性的模式。 为了完成分析， 研究工作将致力于评估人口如何 所研究物种的遗传属性可能会影响 形成过程。 为此， 遗传学定义的亲本物种的结构将是 其特征在于，沿着给出 上升到女儿物种。 这一历史推论将是 从数量的比较分析得出， 变化，以及mtDNA遗传变异的地理模式 和核DNA遗传系统。

This research utilizes complementary phylogenetic and population genetic information to infer modes of speciation in the cave spider Nesticus. The nesticid spiders of the Appalachian region are a recently diverged, species-rich lineage that provides an excellent system for studying both the geographic and populational contexts of speciation. The sister-species relationships of Nesticus will be estimated, and in combination with biogeographic evidence from other cavernicolous clades, will define how historical geology and geomorphology have influenced patterns of taxonomic diversity. To complete the analysis, research efforts will be directed at assessing how the population genetic attributes of the species under study might have influenced the speciational process. To this end, the ancestral population structure of phylogenetically defined parental species will be characterized, along with the type of sampling event which gives rise to daughter species. This historical inference will be derived from a comparative analysis of the amount, the rate of change, and the geographic pattern of genetic variation for mtDNA and nuclear DNA genetic systems.