Phylogenetics of the Lake Tanganyika Cichlid Species Flock

坦噶尼喀湖慈鲷种群的系统发育

• 批准号: 9615178
• 负责人: A. Meyer
• 金额: $ 19.5万
• 依托单位: SUNY at Stony Brook
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1997
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1997-03-01 至 2000-02-29
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9615178&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Phylogenetics; Lake; Tanganyika; Cichlid; Species

9615178 MEYER Cichlid fishes of Lake Tanganyika, the oldest of the great African rift lakes, represent a paradigm example of unprecedented diversity in morphology, behavior, and ecology that occurred over a geologically-short period of time. Lake Tanganyika cichlids display a complexity of differences in external shape and coloration, breeding systems, parental care patterns, and trophic specializations that are not found elsewhere. Lake Tanganyika also is pivotal in the geographic history of eastern Africa, and undoubtedly served as the bio-reservoir from which ancestors to species in other African rift lake were derived. The research to be carried out by Dr. Axel Meyer will employ nucleotide sequences from two different, mitochondrially-encoded genes and from three different, nuclear-encoded genes to investigate genealogical relationships among the twelve tribes (representing 170 species in 50 genera) of cichlids in Lake Tanganyika. These DNA sequences will be used to generate a molecular scaffold that will provide answers to critical questions regarding the origin and diversification of the morphological, behavioral, and ecological specializations that characterize these fishes. Answers to these questions have implications to the understanding of east African cichlids fish assemblages, and in a general sense, to understanding of adaptive radiation and biological theory.

坦噶尼喀湖是非洲大裂谷湖泊中最古老的湖泊，该湖的9615178条湄公鱼代表了在地质上很短的一段时间内发生的形态、行为和生态前所未有的多样性的范例。坦噶尼喀湖慈鱼在外部形状和颜色、繁殖系统、父母照料模式和营养专门化方面表现出复杂的差异，这在其他地方是找不到的。坦噶尼喀湖在东非地理史上也是举足轻重的，毫无疑问，它是非洲其他裂谷湖物种祖先的生物水库。阿克塞尔·迈耶博士将进行的这项研究将利用来自两个不同的线粒体编码基因和三个不同的核编码基因的核苷酸序列来调查坦噶尼喀湖12个部落(代表50个属170个物种)叶蝉的系谱关系。这些DNA序列将被用来生成一个分子支架，它将为这些鱼类的形态、行为和生态特化的起源和多样性等关键问题提供答案。对这些问题的回答对于理解东非慈鱼种群，以及从一般意义上理解适应性辐射和生物学理论具有重要意义。