Collaborative Research: Gauging Introgression: Variation Across the Genome in Mode and Tempo of Natural Selection in a Tiger Salamander Hybrid Zone

这项拟议的研究使用现代、大规模的分子生物学工具来同时解决两个重要问题。首先，它量化了过去350万年来生活在美国不同地区的两种火蜥蜴之间发生的遗传和生态分化的水平。其次，它研究了加州中部这两个物种杂交的遗传后果。在这一独特的生态环境中，一种被联邦政府列为濒危物种的本土物种(加州虎蜥蜴，Ambystoma calforniense)与一种引进的入侵物种(斑点虎鳗，Ambystoma tigrum)杂交，给加州本土物种增加了一个关键的新威胁。这一合作研究努力将在现代基因组技术、田间生态学和保护生物学方面具有强大实力的研究实验室聚集在一起，试图了解野生杂交如何影响濒危物种，最终目标是了解物种形成是如何在这个系统中发生的，以及如何管理入侵物种的毁灭性影响。这项工作的更广泛影响延伸到保护生物学和濒危物种管理的许多方面。这项工作将学术科学家和联邦政策制定者聚集在一起，探索如何将杂交作为保护遗传学中的一个新问题来处理。

The proposed research uses modern, large-scale molecular biological tools to simultaneously address two important questions. First, it quantifies the level of genetic and ecological differentiation that has occurred between two species of salamanders that have been living in separate regions of the United States for the last 3.5 million years. Second, it examines the genetic consequences of hybridization between these two species in central California. In this unique ecological setting, a native, federally-endangered species (the California tiger salamander, Ambystoma californiense) hybridizes with an introduced, invader species (the barred tiger salamander, Ambystoma tigrinum), adding a critical new threat to the California native species. This collaborative research effort brings together research laboratories with great strengths in modern genomic techniques, field ecology, and conservation biology to attempt to understand how hybridization in the wild effects an endangered species, with an ultimate goal of understanding how speciation has occurred in this system, and how to manage the devastating effects of an invasive species. The broader impacts of this work extend into many aspects of conservation biology and endangered species management. The work brings together academic scientists with federal policy makers to explore the ways in which hybridization can be dealt with as an emerging problem in conservation genetics.