Ecological and Evolutionary Physiology of the Stress Response and Stress Proteins

基因的进化对于细菌获得耐药性、影响人类健康的病毒以及物种对全球气候变化的敏感性等多种重要现象至关重要。 决定基因突变（基因进化的第一步）的容易程度的因素人们知之甚少。 这项研究将延续 NSF 支持的一项发现，即一类被称为热休克基因的基因对突变特别敏感，因为转座元件（能够从一个基因跳到另一个基因的 DNA 序列）很容易侵入常见果蝇（果蝇）自然种群中的这些基因。 如果这种现象及其意义确实具有普遍性，那么它应该在许多物种中都存在。 第一个目标是利用计算机技术在许多物种的热休克基因中寻找转座元件，这些物种的基因组现已测序并可在线获取。 第二个目标是寻找不同果蝇物种（果蝇）热休克基因中的转座元件。正如美国国家科学基金会支持的研究表明，如果存在转座元件，它们可以影响宿主基因的功能方式。 在自然群体中，转座元件可以插入不同的位置并且具有不同的大小，有时单个基因中可以存在多个元件。 第三个目标是了解这种变异对基因制造蛋白质的方式的影响，以及蛋白质的变化如何影响压力、生长和繁殖的耐受性。 因此，这项研究可以解释一个物种对环境变化做出反应的能力。该项目还将作为培训年轻科学家、教育其他国家科学家以及提供其他科学家可以借鉴的信息的工具。

The evolution of genes is critical for such diverse and important phenomena as bacteria acquiring resistance to drugs, viruses affecting human health, and species' sensitivity to global climate change. Factors determining how readily genes mutate - the first step in their evolution - are poorly understood. This research will follow up on an NSF-supported discovery that one class of genes, named heat-shock genes, are especially sensitive to mutation because transposable elements (DNA sequences capable of jumping from gene to gene) readily invade these genes in natural populations of the common fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. If this phenomenon and its significance are truly general, it should be found in many species. A first goal will be to use computer techniques to search for transposable elements in the heat-shock genes of many species whose genomes have now been sequenced and are available online. A second goal will be to search for transposable elements in the heat-shock genes of a different fruit fly species, Drosophla willistoni. As NSF-supported research has shown, if transposable elements are present they can affect the way the host gene functions. In natural populations, the transposable elements can insert in different places and be of different sizes, and sometimes multiple elements can be present in a single gene. A third goal will be to understand the consequences of such variation for the way the genes make proteins, and how changes in the proteins affect tolerance of stress, growth, and reproduction. Thus, this research may explain a species' ability to respond to environmental change. This project will also serve as a vehicle for training young scientists, educating scientists in other countries, and providing information on which other scientists can build.