Defining the Role of Seminal Proteins in Reproductive Isolation Between Closely Related Insect Species: Genomic and Proteomic Approaches

生物多样性研究的基本目标之一是了解新物种是如何产生的。 这个过程被称为物种形成，涉及到不同种群之间遗传交换障碍的起源。 最近对多种生物的研究表明，参与动物繁殖的蛋白质的快速进化可能导致遗传障碍。 本项目的目标是确定一对密切相关的昆虫物种之间生殖隔离的分子基础。 现代基因组学和蛋白质组学方法将被用来识别和表征这些昆虫中快速进化的生殖蛋白，并测试这些蛋白质如何有助于观察到的受精障碍。 这里研究的昆虫在生态学、行为学和种群遗传学方面都有很好的特征，这些数据为分子水平的分析提供了必要的背景。 了解昆虫受精障碍对于了解其他生物体中的类似障碍具有潜在的影响。为了产生更广泛的影响，该项目包括一个重要的教育组成部分：编制材料和博物馆展览，旨在教育公众了解物种形成和生殖隔离在生物多样性起源中的作用。

One of the fundamental goals of biodiversity studies is to understand how new species arise. This process, termed speciation, involves the origin of barriers to genetic exchange between diverging populations. Recent studies in a variety of organisms have shown that rapid evolution of proteins involved in animal reproduction can lead to genetic barriers. The goal of this project is to define the molecular basis of reproductive isolation between a pair of closely related insect species. Modern genomic and proteomic approaches will be used to identify and characterize rapidly evolving reproductive proteins in these insects and to test how these proteins contribute to observed barriers to fertilization.Understanding the diversity of mechanisms involved in speciation requires insights from a variety of model systems. The insects studied here have been very well characterized with respect to ecology, behavior, and population genetics, and these data provide the essential context for analyses at the molecular level. Knowledge of barriers to fertilization in insects has potential consequences for understanding similar barriers in other organisms. To provide even broader impacts, this project includes a major educational component: the development of materials and museum exhibits designed to educate the general public about speciation and the role of reproductive isolation in the origin of biodiversity.