Doctoral Dissertation Improvement: Genetic Variation and Gene Expression in Wild Baboons

博士论文改进：野生狒狒的遗传变异和基因表达

• 批准号: 0725502
• 负责人: Susan Alberts
• 金额: $ 1.5万
• 依托单位: Duke 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: 2007-07-01 至 2009-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0725502&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Improvement; Genetic; Variation

Understanding the relationship between genes and organism-level traits (phenotypes) is one of the most important problems in biology today. This relationship is especially important to study in primates, the closest living relatives of humans. The goal of this work is to examine this relationship in one well-studied population of wild primates, the baboons of the Amboseli basin in southern Kenya. Using a set of immune system genes, the researchers will (1) describe genetic variation in the regulatory regions of these genes (the regions that determine when and how much these genes are expressed), (2) determine the exact nature of the subset of genetic variation that affects how much these genes are expressed, and (3) connect this gene expression data to long-term behavioral and ecological data on the study population, to see how gene expression is modified by the environment. This represents ground-breaking work, because it is the first study to examine genetic variation and gene expression in a wild primate population, one for which extensive data already exist on organism-level traits and the environment in which they occur.Intellectual merit. The proposed work has great potential to advance understanding of the relationship between genes, organism-level traits, and the environment. Further, it is one of the first modern molecular population genetic studies to be conducted on wild animals. In addition, it will generate novel data sets on population genetic and gene expression variation in a wild primate.Broader impacts. This research will support the production of samples and datasets of interest to the larger scientific community and will contribute to the ongoing training of three Kenyan field assistants. In addition, it will foster integrative research in the field through using molecular genetic techniques to address anthropological and evolutionary questions. Finally, it will contribute to the training of a graduate student and undergraduates interested in anthropological research.

了解基因和生物体水平性状（表型）之间的关系是当今生物学中最重要的问题之一。这种关系对于灵长类动物的研究尤其重要，灵长类动物是人类最亲近的亲属。这项工作的目标是在一个被充分研究的野生灵长类动物种群中研究这种关系，即肯尼亚南部安博塞利盆地的狒狒。利用一组免疫系统基因，研究人员将（1）描述这些基因调控区的遗传变异（决定这些基因何时表达以及表达多少的区域），（2）确定影响这些基因表达多少的遗传变异子集的确切性质，以及（3）将这些基因表达数据与研究群体的长期行为和生态数据相联系，以了解基因表达如何被环境改变。这是一项开创性的工作，因为它是第一项研究野生灵长类动物种群的遗传变异和基因表达的研究，而野生灵长类动物种群已经存在大量关于生物体水平特征及其发生环境的数据。这项工作具有很大的潜力，可以促进对基因，生物体水平特征和环境之间关系的理解。此外，这是第一个现代分子群体遗传学研究野生动物进行。此外，它还将生成有关野生灵长类动物群体遗传和基因表达变异的新数据集。更广泛的影响。这项研究将有助于制作广大科学界感兴趣的样本和数据集，并将有助于目前对三名肯尼亚外地助理的培训。此外，它将通过使用分子遗传技术来解决人类学和进化问题，促进该领域的综合研究。最后，它将有助于培养对人类学研究感兴趣的研究生和本科生。