CRUI: Timing amd 3-Dimensional Analysis of Musculoskeletal Development

本项目为本科院校合作研究项目，涉及进化和发育生物学、数学和计算机科学。生物学的一个基本问题是，在一组关系密切的物种中，形态的变化是如何从一个共同的模式产生的。尽管我们对动物胚胎发育过程中形状和大小的变化有很多描述细节，但我们对不规则的生物形态缺乏精确和定量的描述。这种多学科方法将使用新的成像技术和几何理论的最新进展来建立一些新的数学方程，以表征复杂结构的形状如何发展和演变。两栖动物肌肉骨骼结构的大小和形状的量化将用于比较发育过程中不同时期的特征，以及比较进化相关群体的特征。该项目汇集了来自生物学和计算机科学的教师和学生。结果对于解释发育事件的时间变化如何成为进化变化的机制将是重要的。这项工作对发育和进化生物学有潜在的重大影响，并承诺在令人兴奋的研究中涉及本科生的新颖跨学科体验。

This project is for Collaborative Research at Undergraduate Institutions, involving evolutionary and developmental biology, mathematics and computer sciences. One of the fundamental questions in biology is how variation in form arises from a general pattern common to a group of closely related species. Although a lot of descriptive detail is available about changes in shape and size of an animal during embryonic development, we lack precise and quantitative descriptions for irregular biological forms. This multidisciplinary approach will use new imaging technology ald recent advances in geometrical theory to establish some novel mathematical equations to characterize how the shape of a complex structure develops and evolves. The quantification of sizes and shapes of musculoskeletal structures in amphibians will be used to compare features at different times during development, and to compare features in evolutionarily related groups. The project brings together faculty and students from biology and computer science. Results will be important in interpreting how variation in timing of developmental events can be a mechanism for evolutionary change. This work has a potentially major impact on developmental and evolutionary biology, and promises a novel cross-disciplinary experience involving undergraduates in exciting research.