Molecular Adaptation and Gametic Competition

这个项目研究了附腺蛋白在受精过程中的作用，特别是在配子竞争的背景下。众所周知，这些蛋白质在精子成功中起着关键作用，因为缺乏产生副腺蛋白质能力的果蝇(果蝇)突变体的生育力大大降低。这些突变体还表现出一些特征，表明附腺蛋白在雌性精子的隔离和储存过程中特别重要。在昆虫中，正常的雌性可能会将一次交配的精子储存数周，这一属性对稀少分布的动物特别重要。基因组学方法被用来识别所有编码附腺蛋白的基因，对相关物种的DNA序列的比较将有助于识别分子的哪些部分进化最快。此外，还将评估和测试ACP基因的种内多态与配子竞争能力变异的关系。这个项目是先前得到国家科学基金会支持的项目的更新和扩展，它已经成为培训和教育许多学生的工具。7名本科生直接在实验室参与了这个项目，3名学生成为出版物的合著者。博士后Alberto Civetta根据他在该项目上所做的工作，在马尼托巴大学获得了一个教职。在接下来的几年里，学生的参与将继续至关重要。在过去NSF的支持下，构建物种X的多个随机基因并将其与物种Y的已知序列进行比对的方法受到了广泛的关注，作为一种详尽地识别在特定组织中表达的基因的手段，同时识别那些经历最快更替的基因。

This project examines the role that accessory gland proteins play in fertilization, particularly in the context of gametic competition. It is known that these proteins play a pivotal role in sperm success, because Drosophila (fruit flies) mutants that lack the ability to produce accessory gland proteins have much reduced fertility. These mutants also exhibit characteristics that suggest that accessory gland proteins are particularly important in the sequestration and storage of sperm by females. In insects, normal females may store sperm from a single mating for several weeks, an attribute that is particularly important for sparsely distributed animals. Genomic methods are being employed to identify all of the genes encoding accessory gland proteins, and comparison of the DNA sequences of related species will allow identification of which parts of the molecules are evolving most rapidly. In addition within-species polymorphism in the Acp genes will be assessed and tested for its association with variation in gametic competitive ability. This project is a renewal and extension of a project that received prior support from NSF, and it has served as a vehicle for training and education of many students. Seven undergraduates have worked in the laboratory directly on this project, and 3 have become co-authors on publications. Postdoctoral fellow Alberto Civetta secured a faculty position at the University of Manitoba on the basis of the work he did on the project. In the coming years, student involvement will continue to be vital. The method of constructing a cDNA library and aligning multiple random genes of species X with known sequences of species Y, devised under the past NSF support, has received widespread attention as a means to exhaustively identify genes expressed in specific tissues and simultaneously to identify those that are undergoing the most rapid turnover.