U.S.-Mexico Cooperative Research: Adaptation and Migration Among Populations of Spiders (Nephila clavipes)

0123578 HigginsThis美国-墨西哥奖将支持林登博士E。马萨诸塞州大学的希金斯和墨西哥城墨西哥国立自治大学生态研究所的胡安·努涅斯·法尔凡博士。 研究人员打算研究在不同生境中发现的生物体的局部适应进化机制。并不是所有在不同栖息地发现的物种都表现出局部适应性，更好地理解为什么物种不能进化局部专业化将有助于我们理解进化多样化如何以及何时进行。他们项目的一个中心问题是：为什么有些物种在不同的栖息地上保持一致的单位？大，圆织蜘蛛Nephila clavipes（蜘蛛目：Tetraglathidae）被发现在整个墨西哥中部和南部，连续分布沿着一个渐变群从墨西哥湾沿岸到太平洋沿岸和孤立的周边种群在中海拔山区的位置。这些种群之间几乎没有局部分化，该物种在其生物学的许多方面表现出很大的表型可塑性。两种替代模型将为研究人员提供关于种群间遗传分化和局部适应的可检验的预测。预测所产生的这两个替代模型的物种的一致性将进行测试，使用现场观察，分子遗传学和实验室实验。 这项合作将受益于将美国PI在所选蜘蛛物种的生态学，发育，行为和生理学方面的专业知识与墨西哥PI在不同生物体中使用数量和群体遗传学框架的表型进化方面的工作结合起来。

0123578 HigginsThis U.S.-Mexico award will support a research collaboration between Dr. Linden E. Higgins of the University of Massachusetts and Dr. Juan Nunez Farfan of the Instituto de Ecologia of the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico City. The researchers intend to study the mechanisms of evolution of local adaptation in organisms found in diverse habitats. Not all species found in diverse habitats show local adaptation, and an improved understanding of why species fail to evolve local specialization will improve our understanding of how and when evolutionary diversification can proceed. A central question of their project is: Why do some species remain coherent units over diverse habitats? The large, orb-weaving spider Nephila clavipes (Araneae: Tetraglathidae) is found throughout central and southern Mexico, continuously distributed along a cline from the Gulf Coast to the Pacific coast and in isolated peripheral populations in mid-altitude mountainous locations. There is little local differentiation among these populations, and the species exhibits great phenotypic plasticity in many aspects of its biology. Two alternative models will provide the researchers with testable predictions concerning the amount of genetic differentiation and local adaptation among populations. Predictions arising from these two alternative models of species coherence will be tested using field observations, molecular genetics, and laboratory experiments. The collaboration will benefit from bringing together the U.S. PI's expertise on the ecology, development, behavior, and physiology of the chosen spider species, with the Mexican PI's work on the phenotypic evolution in different organisms using the framework of quantitative and population genetics.