Research Starter Grant

最近的几项研究利用寄生虫的进化史来推断人类进化史的各个方面。例如，一项研究回顾了寄生虫作为人类进化史标记的使用，并指出人类的五种寄生虫（虱子、绦虫、滤泡螨、一种原生动物和臭虫）具有密切相关的分类对，这表明人类种群长期处于隔离状态。在一项由美国国家科学基金会博士后奖学金资助的研究中，里德博士利用人类的寄生虱子表明，至少在过去的2000万年里，灵长类动物和它们的寄生虱子一直在共同进化。这项研究的一个局限性是依赖于单一基因的历史（即线粒体DNA）来推断宿主的进化史。这一建议寻求添加核标记，以更好地评估这些虱子及其人类宿主的共同进化史。然而，核标记物的加入也将使单独使用线粒体数据无法进行的假设测试成为可能。这项研究将在几个方面开辟新的领域，因为利用寄生虫数据来推断宿主的进化史在很大程度上仍未被探索。由于单核苷酸多态性（SNP）数据不常用于非模式生物，这项工作将有助于完善它们在群体遗传研究中的应用。最后，这项工作将开发新的分析技术来估计种群特征，例如“两个种群在长时间分离后重新连接的时间”。具体来说，里德博士将使用核标记来确定这些基因座重组的时间。这些进步中的每一项都将使一大群生物学家受益。更广泛的影响：寄生虫数据的使用尚未得到人类学家的广泛接受。这项工作可能会改变这一趋势，在可能的情况下在跨学科和人类学期刊上发表，并在人类学会议和专题讨论会上展示这些发现。里德博士的研究在培养年轻科学家从事进化生物学领域（尤其是那些在科学领域代表性不足的领域）方面非常成功，他希望通过这个项目继续这种趋势。这笔启动资金还将使里德博士的实验室能够实现目前缺乏的核基因座（SNP和微卫星数据）的快速积累。这笔资金将大大增强一个更大的团队，而不仅仅是里德博士的团队，因为这些设施将由许多同事共享。

Several recent studies have used the evolutionary history of parasites to infer aspects of human evolutionary history. For example, one study reviewed the use of parasites as markers of human evolutionary history, and pointed out that five parasites of humans (lice, tapeworms, follicle mites, a protozoan, and bedbugs) have closely related taxonomic pairs that suggest long periods of isolation for human populations. In work funded by an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship, Dr. Reed used the parasitic lice of humans to show that primates and their parasitic lice have been co-evolving for at least the last 20 million years. One limitation of this study was reliance on a single gene history (i.e., mitochondrial DNA) to infer host evolutionary history. This proposal seeks to add nuclear markers to better evaluate the coevolutionary history of these lice and their human hosts. However, the addition of nuclear markers will also enable tests of hypotheses that were not possible with mitochondrial data alone. This research will break new ground on several fronts, as the use of parasite data to infer host evolutionary history is still largely unexplored. Because single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data are not often used in non-model organisms, this work will help to refine their use for population genetic studies.Lastly, this work will develop new analytical techniques for estimating population characteristics, such as "how long two populations have been reconnected after long separation." Specifically, Dr. Reed will use nuclear markers to determine how long these loci have been recombining. Each of these advancements will be beneficial to a large group of biologists.Broader Impacts: The use of parasite data has not gained wide acceptance among anthropologists just yet. This work may change this trend by publishing in cross-disciplinary and anthropological journals when possible, and presenting these findings at anthropological meetings and symposia. Dr. Reed's research has been very successful in training young scientists to work in the field of evolutionary biology (especially those that are underrepresented in the sciences), and he expects to continue this trend with this project. This starter grant will also enable Dr. Reed's laboratory to achieve the rapid accumulation of nuclear loci (SNP and microsatellite data), which it currently lacks. This funding would be a great enhancement to a much larger group than just Dr. Reed's, as these facilities would be shared among many colleagues.