Parallel Developmental Evolution of Shavenbaby in Drosophila

果蝇 Shavenbaby 的平行发育进化

• 批准号: 0640339
• 负责人: David Stern
• 金额: $ 43.12万
• 依托单位: Princeton University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-08-01 至 2011-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0640339&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Parallel; Developmental; Evolution; Shavenbaby; Drosophila

Summary of Proposed ResearchDifferent species have sometimes evolved similar appearances and behaviors as a result of exposure to similar ecological conditions, a phenomenon called "convergence". For example, marsupials evolved into a variety of forms resembling placental animals (for example, flying squirrels, anteaters, moles, mice, and wolves). Recent work in evolutionary developmental biology, or evo-devo, indicates that sometimes similar genes may underlie convergence. In one example that has been studied in detail, one species of drosophilid fly, D. sechellia, has evolved nearly-naked larvae, whereas most drosophild flies have hairy larvae. A second group of drosophilids, the D. virilis group, which diverged from D. sechellia approximately 60 million years ago, also contains some species with nearly-naked larvae. Evidence was presented previously that the same gene, called shavenbaby, caused these similar nearly-naked larvae in both cases. This hypothesis will be rigorously tested by performing a detailed analysis of shavenbaby gene evolution in the D. virilis group. This work will involve developing new methods that will allow tests of gene function within D. virilis. These critical functional tests will provide a compelling analysis of convergence and will indicate how the same gene can evolve in different species to cause the same result. This information will inform how often the same genes evolve to cause convergence. Dr. Stern's laboratory has a strong record of promoting women in science and training undergraduates in research. Since starting the lab at Princeton approximately half of the graduate students and postdocs have been women. The laboratory trains approximately 2-4 undergraduates each year, all of whom perform independent research and write a thesis based on this work. About half of these projects have resulted in publications and several students have continued on to graduate school in evolutionary biology.

拟议的研究不同物种的摘要有时会因暴露于类似的生态条件而演变出类似的外观和行为，这种现象称为“融合”。例如，有袋动物演变成各种类似胎盘动物的形式（例如，飞行的松鼠，武术，痣，小鼠和狼）。进化发育生物学或EVO-DEVO的最新工作表明，有时类似的基因可能是融合的基础。在一个详细研究的一个例子中，一种果蝇苍蝇D. sechellia的一种种类进化出了近乎裸露的幼虫，而大多数果蝇蝇都有毛茸茸的幼虫。大约6000万年前与D. sechellia不同的第二组果蝇，d。virilis组，也包含一些近乎裸露的幼虫的物种。以前有证据表明，在这两种情况下，同一基因称为shavenbaby，造成了这些类似的近乎裸露的幼虫。该假设将通过对D. virilis组的剃须刀基因进化进行详细分析来严格检验。这项工作将涉及开发新的方法，以允许在D. virilis中测试基因功能。这些关键的功能测试将提供令人信服的收敛分析，并表明在不同物种中相同的基因如何进化以引起相同的结果。这些信息将告知相同基因演变以引起收敛的频率。斯特恩博士的实验室在研究领域的科学和培训本科生方面拥有良好的记录。自从在普林斯顿开始实验室以来，大约一半的研究生和博士后是女性。实验室每年大约有2-4名本科生的训练，所有这些人都根据这项工作进行独立研究并撰写论文。这些项目中约有一半导致出版物，并且有几个学生继续从事进化生物学的研究生院。