Evolutionary Advantage, Recombination, and Adaptationin Experimental Yeast Populations

实验酵母群体的进化优势、重组和适应

• 批准号: 0542738
• 负责人: Clifford Zeyl
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Wake Forest University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-02-15 至 2011-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0542738&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Evolutionary; Advantage; Recombination; Adaptationin; Experimental

Most familiar plants and animals reproduce by sex, with male and female parents combining their genes to produce offspring. Yet there is still no clear explanation for why. Sex is an inefficient way to transmit genes: only half of your genes end up in your offspring, while if you cloned yourself, your offspring would carry all your genes. Also, the reshuffling of genes that occurs during sex can break up gene combinations that already work well together. Most hypotheses about sex propose that it is somehow better to produce genetically diverse offspring. Experiments with yeast will test some of these predictions. Yeast are ideal for these tests because sex is optional, so otherwise identical sexual and asexual populations can be allowed to adapt with and without sex. Apart from contributing to our understanding of a basic feature of biology, this project may illuminate some of the consequences of controversial new technological alternatives to sexual reproduction, such as cloning. By eliminating sex, cloning may have unknown long-term effects on the lineage of cloned organisms. The project will also provide excellent opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students to participate in the study of evolution, to observe it directly as it occurs, and to understand it as an everyday process

大多数常见的植物和动物通过性别繁殖，雄性和雌性父母结合他们的基因产生后代。 然而，至今仍没有明确的解释。 性是一种低效的基因传递方式：你只有一半的基因最终会传给你的后代，而如果你克隆了自己，你的后代将携带你所有的基因。 此外，在性交过程中发生的基因重组可能会破坏已经很好地协同工作的基因组合。 大多数关于性别的假设都认为，生育出基因多样的后代在某种程度上会更好。 用酵母做的实验将检验其中的一些预测。 酵母是这些测试的理想选择，因为性别是可选的，因此可以允许相同的有性和无性群体在有性和无性的情况下适应。 除了有助于我们理解生物学的一个基本特征外，这个项目还可能阐明有争议的替代有性生殖的新技术（如克隆）的一些后果。 由于消除了性别，克隆可能会对克隆生物的谱系产生未知的长期影响。 该项目还将为研究生和本科生提供极好的机会，让他们参与进化的研究，直接观察进化的发生，并将其理解为日常过程