Dissertation Research: Phylogenetic Relationships Among Macropodidae

9701413施普林格该奖项将提供材料和用品的资金，以加强安吉拉·伯克女士的论文研究，她是加州大学河滨分校的博士生，目前在马克·施普林格博士的指导下工作。Burk女士的论文研究涉及从三个线粒体编码基因(12S rRNA、valine tRNA和16S rRNA)和一个核编码基因(鱼精蛋白P1)中获取DNA序列，这些基因来自大脚鱼科所有现存属的代表。大型足类动物由袋鼠、沙袋鼠和鼠袋鼠组成，是所有已知有袋类动物中物种最丰富的一类。这些种群包含62种生活物种，它们占据着广泛多样的栖息地，包括热带雨林、高山草丛草原和干旱的内陆平原。此前，人们曾多次尝试揭开巨足鱼科的系统发育历史，但到目前为止还没有完全的解决方案。伯克女士的研究将建立这样一个系统发育框架，此外，还将提供对已研究分类群的分化时间的估计。她的研究还将考察几个形态特征和特征复合体的历史发展，解决关于每个基因的进化速度(分歧)的问题，并评估用于系统发育推断的不同特征加权方法。支持对研究生进行现代技术培训，对于保持有能力解决全球生物学中的问题和问题的科学家队伍至关重要。

9701413 Springer This award will provide funds for materials and supplies to enhance the dissertation research of Ms. Angela Burk, a doctoral student at the University of California - Riverside who is working under the supervision of Dr. Mark Springer. Ms. Burk's dissertation research involves acquisition of DNA sequences from three mitochondrially-encoded genes (12S rRNA, valine tRNA, and 16S rRNA) and one nuclear-encoded gene (protamine P1) from a representative of all living genera of Macropodidae. Macropodids consist of kangaroos, wallabies, and rat-kangaroos, and are the most species-rich group of all known marsupials. The groups contains 62 living species that occupy a wide diversity of habitats, including tropical rain forests, alpine tussock grasslands, and arid inland plains. Numerous attempts have been made previously to unravel the phylogenetic history of Macropodidae, but thus far complete resolution has not been obtained. Ms. Burk's research will establish such a phylogenetic framework and, in addition, will provide estimates of divergence times of examined taxa. Her research also will examine the historical development of several morphological characters and character complexes, address questions regarding rates of evolution (divergence) of each gene, and evaluate different character-weighing approaches for phylogenetic inference. Support for training of graduate students in modern technologies is critical to maintain the workforce of scientists capable of addressing questions and issues in global biology.