International Research Fellowship Program: Selection and the Evolution of Morphological Variation in Strawberry Poison Dart Frogs from Boca del Toro Archipelago

0701165理查兹国际研究奖学金计划使美国科学家和工程师能够在国外进行9至24个月的研究。 该计划的奖项提供了联合研究的机会，并使用独特或互补的设施，专业知识和国外的实验条件。该奖项将支持24个月的研究奖学金由李博士科琳理查兹与博士罗伯托D。巴拿马巴拿马城巴拿马大学的Ibanez博士和Molly E.德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校的卡明斯博士和加州大学伯克利分校的吉姆·麦圭尔博士和艾琳·莱西博士说。理解自然选择和性选择对物种形成过程的相对重要性仍然是进化生物学的一个重大挑战。虽然自然选择的重要性在理论上和经验上都得到了有力的支持，但性选择在产生和维持早期物种之间的生殖隔离方面的作用缺乏有力的经验支持，尽管理论证据表明它有可能推动物种形成。这项研究的目的是提高我们的理解的过程和机制，导致生殖隔离的进化，通过整合的生态，形态，行为和分子研究的高度可变的草莓箭毒蛙（Dendrobates pumilio）的博卡斯德尔托罗群岛的巴拿马。本研究的综合方法提供的细节将有助于我们理解驱动早期物种之间的形态多样性的快速进化的机制。地方pumilio系统提供了一个独特的机会，阐明重要的因素的产生和维持的生物多样性，由于其形态和行为的多样性，地理接近，迅速分化，和独特的形式的父母照顾。由于这个原因，该系统有可能成为一个模型的物种形成的研究和这项研究作为一个跳板，在未来的其他重要的生态和进化研究。

0701165RichardsThe International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct nine to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.This award will support a twenty-four-month research fellowship by Dr. Corinne Lee Richards to work with Dr. Roberto D. Ibanez at the University of Panama in Panama City, Panama, with Dr. Molly E. Cummings at the University of Texas at Austin, in Texas, and Drs. Jim McGuire and Eileen Lacey at the University of California, Berkeley.Understanding the relative importance of natural and sexual selection to the process of speciation remains a significant challenge in evolutionary biology. While the importance of natural selection has been strongly supported both theoretically and empirically, sexual selection's role in generating and maintaining reproductive isolation among incipient species lacks strong empirical support, despite theoretical evidence of its potential to drive speciation. This research aims to improve our understanding of the processes and mechanisms leading to the evolution of reproductive isolation through the integration of ecological, morphological, behavioral and molecular studies of the highly variable strawberry poison dart frogs (Dendrobates pumilio) of the Bocas del Toro archipelago of Panama. The detail afforded by this study's integrative approach will facilitate our understanding of the mechanisms driving the rapid evolution of morphological diversity among incipient species. The D. pumilio system provides a unique opportunity to elucidate factors important to the generation and maintenance of biodiversity due to their morphological and behavioral diversity, geographic proximity, rapid divergence, and unique form of parental care. For this reason, the system has the potential to become a model for studies of speciation and this research to serve as a springboard for other important ecological and evolutionary studies in the future.