Doctoral Dissertation Improvement: Comparison of Human Population Distances Using Genetic and Craniometric Data

博士论文改进：使用遗传和颅骨测量数据比较人类人口距离

• 批准号: 0622570
• 负责人: Mark Spencer
• 金额: $ 0.66万
• 依托单位: Arizona State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-09-01 至 2007-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0622570&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Improvement; Comparison; Human

Morphology is often used as an indicator of genetic relationships. However, our growing understanding of genetics suggests that the influences on anatomy are frequently not simple. Many factors including development, environment, and adaptation, are known to affect form and complicate the interpretation of relationships. Few studies have evaluated the nature of the complex relationship between morphological variation and genetic distances. The first goal of this study is to assess the association between skull morphology and genetic relationships in modern humans. This test will integrate an anatomical analysis of human cranial form with the growing database of information on human genetic diversity. Using three-dimensional cranial data and neutral genetic loci for seventeen human populations, depictions of population relationships will be statistically compared. The second goal of this research is to evaluate the extent to which different subsets of cranial data may vary in their correlation with genetic relationships in humans. Subsets include data separated by skull region or by mode of evolution (i.e., neutrally evolving through genetic drift vs. non-neutrally evolving through selection). It is likely that influences will vary for different regions of the cranium, suggesting that some regions may be more reliable indicators of genetic relationships than others. Through a comparison of molecular and anatomical data, this study will provide a rigorous test of the hypothesis that some aspects of skull form reflect genetic relationships more accurately than others for modern human populations. To address this hypothesis, several regions of the skull (the skull base, face, mandible, palate, teeth, temporal bone, and cranial vault) will be analyzed to determine which regions co-vary with genetic distances. An underlying assumption of many studies is that anatomical regions evolving by genetic drift are the most informative about relationships, because they are not affected by adaptation, which can result in superficial similarities among distantly related species. A subsidiary set of analyses will test the hypothesis that scenarios of relationships derived from neutrally evolving regions of the cranium will more closely match those based on genetic data than those obtained from cranial regions not evolving neutrally. It will address the question of whether skull morphology directly reflects genetic relationships. The broader impacts of this study include the investigation of the complex association between anatomical characteristics and genetic relationships generally, which is an interesting, broad biological issue, relevant beyond physical anthropology. The degree of concordance between anatomical and genetic data has been an issue of debate among biologists and geneticists for a wide range of species, and the question is relevant to research regarding the evolution and anatomy of many different species. This study's dataset will also be made available for other researchers on a webpage, thus contributing to future research. In addition, graduate student co-PI will receive training in conducting research.

形态学通常被用作遗传关系的指标。然而，我们对遗传学的日益了解表明，对解剖学的影响往往并不简单。众所周知，包括发展、环境和适应在内的许多因素都会影响形式并使关系的解释变得复杂。很少有研究评估形态变异和遗传距离之间复杂关系的本质。这项研究的第一个目标是评估现代人类头骨形态与遗传关系之间的关联。该测试将把人类颅骨形态的解剖分析与不断增长的人类遗传多样性信息数据库结合起来。使用十七个人群的三维颅骨数据和中性遗传位点，对人群关系的描述进行统计比较。 这项研究的第二个目标是评估颅骨数据的不同子集与人类遗传关系的相关性可能存在多大程度的差异。子集包括按头骨区域或进化模式（即通过遗传漂变进行中性进化与通过选择进行非中性进化）分隔的数据。颅骨不同区域的影响可能会有所不同，这表明某些区域可能比其他区域更可靠地指示遗传关系。通过分子和解剖数据的比较，这项研究将对这一假设进行严格的检验，即头骨形状的某些方面比现代人类的其他方面更准确地反映了遗传关系。为了解决这一假设，将对头骨的几个区域（颅底、面部、下颌骨、腭、牙齿、颞骨和颅顶）进行分析，以确定哪些区域与遗传距离共同变化。许多研究的一个基本假设是，通过遗传漂变进化的解剖区域最能提供有关关系的信息，因为它们不受适应的影响，而适应可能会导致亲缘关系较远的物种之间出现表面相似性。一组辅助分析将检验以下假设：与从非中性进化的颅骨区域获得的关系情景相比，从颅骨中性进化区域获得的关系情景将更接近基于遗传数据的关系情景。它将解决头骨形态是否直接反映遗传关系的问题。 这项研究更广泛的影响包括对解剖特征和遗传关系之间复杂关联的调查，这是一个有趣的、广泛的生物学问题，与体质人类学无关。解剖学和遗传数据之间的一致性程度一直是生物学家和遗传学家针对多种物种争论的一个问题，并且该问题与许多不同物种的进化和解剖学研究相关。这项研究的数据集也将在网页上提供给其他研究人员，从而为未来的研究做出贡献。此外，研究生联合首席研究员将接受研究培训。