Evolutionary Genetic Approaches to Dental Anthropology

9408402 肯·韦斯 牙齿和它们的比较特征在体质人类学中具有中心的重要性。 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，对它们的发育和不同形态的遗传控制根本不清楚。 这个突破性的项目将使用进化的方法来适应我们在小鼠发育遗传学方面获得的知识，以适应灵长类动物的牙齿变异。 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邻近的调控区将在一个同齿类物种、一个异齿类物种和四个异齿类灵长类物种中进行测序。 比对的序列将被搜索的控制元件保存在整个进化的牙齿，和那些元件的变化可能对应于牙齿形态学的变化在灵长类动物进化。

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.