Testing the temporal assumption of Mayr's Geographic Speciation Model

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

0002213HrbekThe International Research Fellow Awards Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique orcomplementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.This award will provide Dr. Tomas Hrbek with support fortwenty-four months to work with Dr. Axel Meyer at the University of Konstanz in Germany on a project entitled "Testing the Temporal Assumption of Mayr's Geographic Speciation Model."This project will use the killifish genus Aphanius as a model system to test distributional and speciational hypotheses as impacted by the Plio-Pleistocene Mediterranean Sea level fluctuations, the Messinian salinity crisis, orogenic events associated with closing of the Tethys Sea, and the drying of the central Anatolian plateau. Mayr's model of speciation postulates that the range of a single species must be broken up into discontinuous regions, with little or no gene flow between them, in order for speciation to occur. Dr. Hrbek will use molecular data to generate a phylogeny of Aphanius and will do a population genetic study of the Aphanius anatoliae species complex. A detailed molecular analyses will allow him to test temporal and spatial processes leading to patterns of diversification and speciation which are exemplified in that genus. Such an analysis will also aid conservation efforts of this group of fishes, which appear to be endangered in many areas of their distribution.The host lab is especially well suited for this project, having a very active research group and an extensive professional contact with the European evolutionary community. The lab also has an extensive infrastructure and knowledge base.***