Megatransect Population Genetic Survey of the Andes and the Adaptive Hemoglobin Respiratory Proteins of South American Ducks

南美洲的安第斯山脉提供了一个无与伦比的机会来研究血红蛋白的适应性特征，这些血红蛋白在当地适应高海拔呼吸（氧气压力是4,000米处海平面的60%）。缺氧和自然选择的预测发挥了因果作用，在安第斯山脉内的水禽的物种形成，塑造形态和细分共同分布的亚种和种群之间的共享地区的特有现象。南美洲鸭的群体遗传学和血红蛋白的适应性特征将在安第斯山脉的大断面进行研究。收集的标本将被收集并存档在博物馆藏品中。成人和胚胎a-和b-血红蛋白基因将被测序，并与线粒体DNA和核基因，已经独立进化。这项研究将弥合系统发育系统学和生理遗传学之间的差距，通过研究适应的群体遗传学。它将提供比较DNA和氨基酸序列数据，包括关于在安第斯山脉适应性进化的氨基酸位置的具体信息。这一信息将有助于研究高海拔生理学和基因表达，并消除生物分子适应研究中历史与机制、模式与过程及其在促进生物多样性方面的作用之间长期存在的脱节。

South America's Andean Cordillera offers an unparalleled opportunity to study the adaptive characteristics of hemoglobin proteins that are locally adapted for high-altitude respiration (oxygen pressure is 60% of sea level at 4,000 meters). Hypoxia and natural selection are predicted to have played causal roles in the speciation of waterfowl within the Andes, shaping morphology and subdividing co-distributed subspecies and populations among shared areas of endemism. The population genetics of South American ducks and adaptive characteristics of hemoglobins will be studied across a Megatransect of the Andes. Vouchered specimens will be collected and archived in museum collections. Adult and embryonic a- and b-hemoglobin genes will be sequenced and compared to mitochondrial DNA and nuclear genes that have evolved independently.This study will bridge a gap between phylogenetic systematics and physiological genetics by studying the population genetics of adaptation. It will provide comparative DNA and amino acid sequence data, including specific information about the amino acid positions that have evolved adaptively in the Andes. This information will contribute to studies of high-altitude physiology and gene expression and erode the long-standing disconnect between history and mechanism and pattern and process in studies of biomolecular adaptation and its role in stimulating biodiversity.