IRCEB: The Phylogenetics and Functional Integration of Complex Phenotypes Regulating Social/Reproductive Interactions

物种形成，一个物种分裂成两个物种的进化过程，创造了我们今天在世界上看到的惊人的生物多样性。行为在物种形成中起着重要作用。动物通常有信号——颜色、歌声或气味——来表明身份。雌性在选择配偶时密切关注这些信号，并避免与其他物种的雄性交配。了解这些交流系统如何调节生殖相互作用对于理解为什么有这么多物种很重要。来自DNA序列的信息将用于重建系统发育-分裂的历史模式-产生了Physalaemus蛙属的物种。系统发育学将用于解释不同物种在叫声、声道结构、激素谱、对叫声差异的行为反应以及大脑听觉中心的神经生物学方面的差异。其目的是推断物种特异性信号的差异以及雌性对这些信号的偏好的差异是如何进化的。

Speciation, the evolutionary process by which one species splits into two, has created the staggering biodiversity that we see in the world today. Behavior plays a large role in speciation. Animals usually have signals - colors, songs, or smells - that indicate identity. Females attend to these signals closely when choosing a mate, and avoid mating with males of other species. Understanding how these communication systems regulate reproductive interactions is important to understanding why there are so many species.Information from DNA sequences will be used to reconstruct the phylogeny - the historical pattern of splitting - that produced the species in the frog genus Physalaemus. The phylogeny will be used to interpret differences among species in calls, vocal tract structure, hormone profiles, behavioral responses to call differences, and the neurobiology of the auditory centers in the brain. The goal is to deduce how differences in species-specific signals and differences in female preferences for these signals have evolved.