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志的使用，并指出人类的五种寄生虫(虱子、绦虫、毛囊螨、原生动物和臭虫)具有密切的分类对，这表明人类种群将长期隔离。在一项由美国国家科学基金会博士后奖学金资助的工作中，里德博士用人类的寄生虱证明了灵长类动物和它们的寄生虱至少在过去2000万年里一直是共同进化的。这项研究的局限性之一是依赖于单基因历史(即线粒体DNA)来推断宿主进化历史。这项建议寻求增加核标记，以更好地评估这些虱子和它们的人类宿主的共同进化史。然而，核标记的加入也将使仅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天地，因为利用寄生虫数据推断宿主进化历史在很大程度上仍未被探索。由于单核苷酸多态(SNP)数据在非模式生物中并不经常使用，这项工作将有助于将其用于群体遗传学研究。最后，这项工作将开发新的分析技术来估计群体特征，如“两个群体在长期分离后重新连接了多长时间”。具体地说，里德博士将使用核标记来确定这些基因座重组了多久。这些进展中的每一项都将使一大批生物学家受益。广泛的影响：寄生虫数据的使用还没有得到人类学家的广泛接受。这项工作可能会通过在可能的情况下在跨学科和人类学期刊上发表，并在人类学会议和研讨会上展示这些发现来改变这一趋势。里德博士的研究非常成功地培养了年轻科学家在进化生物学领域工作(特别是那些在科学界代表性不足的科学家)，他希望这个项目能延续这一趋势。这笔启动拨款还将使里德博士的实验室能够实现核基因座(SNP和微卫星数据)的快速积累，而这是目前所缺乏的。这笔资金对一个比里德博士多得多的群体来说将是一个巨大的增强，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.