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.

研究综述不同的物种有时会因为暴露在相似的生态条件下而进化出相似的外观和行为，这种现象被称为“趋同”。例如，有袋类动物进化成各种形式，类似于胎盘动物(例如，飞鼠、食蚁兽、鼹鼠、老鼠和狼)。进化发育生物学或EVO-DEVO的最新研究表明，有时相似的基因可能是趋同的基础。在一个已经进行了详细研究的例子中，一种果蝇D.sechellia进化出了几乎赤裸的幼虫，而大多数果蝇的幼虫都有毛。第二类果蝇是约6000万年前从D·sechellia分化而来的D·virilis群，其中也包括一些幼虫几乎裸露的物种。此前有证据表明，在这两种情况下，导致这些相似的近乎裸露的幼虫的是同一个基因，称为shavenBaby。这一假设将通过对维氏假丝酵母菌群体中shavenBaby基因进化的详细分析来严格检验。这项工作将涉及开发新的方法，使之能够测试德氏杆菌的基因功能。这些关键的功能测试将提供令人信服的趋同分析，并将表明相同的基因如何在不同物种中进化而导致相同的结果。这一信息将告知相同的基因进化导致融合的频率有多高。斯特恩博士的实验室在提拔女性从事科学研究和培养研究本科生方面有着良好的记录。自从在普林斯顿开始这个实验室以来，大约一半的研究生和博士后都是女性。该实验室每年培养大约2-4名本科生，他们都进行独立研究，并在此基础上写一篇论文。这些项目中约有一半已经出版，有几名学生继续攻读进化生物学研究生院。