Collaborative Research: Systematics and Evolutionary Biology of the Drosophila Quinaria Species Group

9629517 GRIMALDI该奖项将支持David GRIMALDI博士与Greg Spicer博士合作完成的一项研究项目。Grimaldi将利用一组果蝇的形态学、生态学和行为学信息，即果蝇种类组（昆虫纲：双翅目：果蝇科），推导出物种间关系的系统发育。他还将对该种群进行生物地理分析，该种群在分布上基本上是全北极的，但确实包括来自中国的一种未知的已描述物种，这可能是该地区未描述物种的冰山一角。格里马尔迪的结果将与斯派塞的结果相结合，斯派塞将对这些相同的物种进行分子系统发育分析。目前，这个群体的规模是可控的，有28个已描述的物种，在栖息地和繁殖地显示出有趣的生物多样性。希望形态学和分子证据的结合将导致一个完全解决的系统发育，在未来，可以用来解决几个有趣的进化问题，包括寄生线虫中果蝇宿主范围的决定因素和向新生态位转移的系统发育限制，如蘑菇育种和蘑菇毒素耐受性的可能伴随变化。这个奖项将有助于我们了解昆虫生物多样性的一个要素，并开始提供有关物种如何随时间改变习性和寄主关联的信息。

9629517 GRIMALDI This award will support Dr. David Grimaldi's contribution to a research project being done in collaboration with Dr. Greg Spicer. Grimaldi will utilize morphological, ecological, and behavioral information for a group of flies, the Drosophila quinaria species group (Insecta: Diptera: Drosophilidae), to derive a phylogeny of relationships among the species. He will also pursue a biogeographic analysis of the group which is largely Holarctic in distribution but does include a single described species of unknown affiliation from China that may represent the tip of an iceberg of undescribed species from that region. Grimaldi's results will be integrated with those of Spicer who will pursue a molecular phylogenetic analysis of these same species. At present, the group is of a manageable size, with 28 described species that show interesting biological diversity in habitat and breeding sites. It is hoped that the combined morphological and molecular evidence will result in a fully resolved phylogeny that, in the future, can be used to address several interesting evolutionary questions, including determinants of Drosophila host range in parasitic nematodes and phylogenetic constraints on shifting to a new ecological niche such as mushroom breeding with possible concomitant shifts in tolerance of mushroom toxins. This award will contribute to our understanding of an element of insect biodiversity and begin to provide information concerning how species change habit and host associations through time.