Evolutionary Genetic Approaches to Dental Anthropology

9408402颗肯·维斯的牙齿及其比较特征在体质人类学中具有重要意义。它们是保存最完好的特征之一，因此在化石研究中至关重要。然而，基因对它们的发育和不同形态的控制却完全不被理解。这个开创性的项目将使用进化方法来适应我们在小鼠发育遗传学上获得的知识，以实现灵长类牙齿的变异。将搜索DLX和MSX基因以寻找在牙齿中表达的调控基因。一个基因的编码区和相邻的调节区将在一个同齿动物物种、一个异形牙齿物种和四个不同的灵长类动物中进行测序。比对的序列将被寻找在牙齿整个进化过程中保守的控制元件，以及那些其变化可能与灵长类进化过程中牙齿形态变化相对应的元件。

9408402 Ken Weiss Teeth and their comparative features have been of central importance in physical anthropology. They are among the best-preserved traits, and so are critical in fossil studies. Yet the genetic control over their development and different morphologies is not understood at all. This ground-breaking project will use evolutionary approaches to adapt the knowledge we have gained on developmental genetics in mice to primate dental variation. The Dlx and Msx genes will be searched for regulatory genes expressed in teeth. The coding and adjacent regulatory regions of one gene will be sequenced in a homodont species, and a divergent heterodont, and four divergent primates. The aligned sequences will be searched for control elements conserved across the entire evolution of teeth, and those elements whose variation may correspond phylogenitically to changes in dental morphology during primate evolution.