Molecular Studies of Cospeciation Enhanced by Exhaustive Sampling and GIS Technology

通过详尽采样和 GIS 技术增强共态的分子研究

• 批准号: 0343869
• 负责人: Mark Hafner
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Louisiana State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-02-15 至 2009-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0343869&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Molecular; Studies; Cospeciation; Enhanced; Exhaustive

ABSTRACTThis project will continue an in-depth exploration of two organisms thathave lived together for many millions of years, namely chewing lice (a groupof parasitic insects) and their mammalian hosts (pocket gophers). Previousstudies of this host-parasite system by the PI and colleagues have providednew insights into how organisms live in long-term symbiosis and has advancedour knowledge of rates of molecular change in insects versus mammals. Thisproject will take a new and different approach to host-parasite studies byanalyzing cospeciation at a previously unexplored scale augmented by use ofGIS (Geographic Information Systems) technology. Analysis of cophylogeny(parallel speciation in the hosts and parasites) will use DNA sequences fromboth nuclear and mitochondrial genes. Recently developed methods will beused to compare rates of molecular evolution among genes, genomes, andspecies to identify gene-specific, genome-specific, and lineage-specificrate differences. GIS technology will be used to develop and test predictivedistribution models (3ecological niche models2) for each species of pocketgopher and each species of louse examined in this study. Finally, thisproject will establish Louisiana State University (LSU) as an active node inthe worldwide louse database (LouseBase), into which will be deposited alllouse data generated in the course of this research.Data generated in the PI's studies of the gopher-louse system continue to beused widely in development of analytical methods and software for analysisof host-parasite systems (e.g., Huelsenbeck & Rannala, 1997; Huelsenbeck etal., 1997; and the programs COMPONENT and TREEMAP developed by RodericPage). This work has also been featured in at least 8 books and textbooks,including Parasitology (Noble et al., 1989), A Functional Biology ofParasitism (Esch & Fernandez, 1993), and Evolution (Ridley, 1996). Thus,this work has reached a large number of graduate and undergraduate students.The proposed project has an explicit plan to involve students ascollaborators in the research. This includes undergraduates, graduates, andpostdocs at LSU, collaborators and their graduate students in Mexico, andundergraduate students at the University of Northern Iowa (UNI), which is asubcontractor on this project. Students at UNI will be trained in thefundamental, yet rapidly disappearing, skills of parasite taxonomy andidentification, insect microscopy, and use of the digital microscopy imagingsystem for specimen documentation and morphological analysis. Students willalso be exposed to the total breadth of the proposed research programthrough intensive, 10-day, summer workshops in the molecular lab at LSU.These workshops will not only train the students in the molecular techniquesinvolved with the proposed research, but will also expose them to theworkings of a larger research laboratory. This kind of exposure andexperience is essential to encourage quality students to pursue careers innon-medical basic research.

本项目将继续深入探索两种已经共同生活了数百万年的生物，即咀嚼虱（一种寄生昆虫）和它们的哺乳动物宿主（囊地鼠）。 PI及其同事先前对这种宿主-寄生虫系统的研究为生物如何长期共生提供了新的见解，并提高了我们对昆虫与哺乳动物分子变化率的认识。 该项目将采取一种新的和不同的方法来研究宿主-寄生虫，通过分析共同物种形成在一个以前未探索的规模扩大使用ofGIS（地理信息系统）技术。同源发生（宿主和寄生虫中的平行物种形成）的分析将使用来自核和线粒体基因的DNA序列。最近开发的方法将被用来比较基因、基因组和物种之间的分子进化速率，以确定基因特异性、基因组特异性和谱系特异性的速率差异。本研究将利用地理资讯系统（GIS）技术，针对本研究所调查的每种囊鼠及每种虱类，发展及测试预测分布模式（3生态位模式2）。最后，本项目将建立路易斯安那州立大学（LSU）作为全球虱子数据库（LouseBase）的一个活动节点，将在本研究过程中产生的所有虱子数据存入该数据库。PI对地鼠-虱子系统的研究中产生的数据继续广泛用于开发分析方法和软件，用于分析宿主-寄生虫系统（例如，Huelsenbeck Rannala，1997; Huelsenbeck埃塔尔，1997;以及由RodericPage开发的程序COMPONENT和TREEMAP）。 这项工作也被收录在至少8本书和教科书中，包括《寄生虫学》（Noble等人，1989），寄生的功能生物学（埃施费尔南德斯，1993），和进化（雷德利，1996）。因此，这项工作已经达到了大量的研究生和本科生。拟议的项目有一个明确的计划，让学生作为合作者参与研究。 这包括路易斯安那州立大学的本科生、研究生和博士后，墨西哥的合作者和他们的研究生，以及北方爱荷华州大学（UNI）的本科生，UNI是这个项目的分包商。 UNI的学生将接受培训，学习寄生虫分类和鉴定、昆虫显微镜以及使用数字显微镜成像系统进行标本记录和形态分析的基本技能，但这些技能正在迅速消失。学生们还将通过在路易斯安那州立大学分子实验室举办的为期10天的暑期讲习班，全面了解拟议的研究计划。这些讲习班不仅将培训学生参与拟议研究的分子技术，而且还将使他们接触到更大的研究实验室的工作。这种接触和经验对于鼓励优秀学生从事非医学基础研究至关重要。