Collaborative Research on the Genetic Basis of Reproductive Isolation in House Mice

据估计，地球上存在着900多万个物种，了解有助于物种形成的生态和遗传因素是生物科学的一个中心问题。虽然半个世纪以来对物种形成的遗传基础的研究揭示了一些一般性的见解，但只有少数几个有助于物种形成的基因被识别出来；因此，许多问题仍然存在。例如，物种形成涉及哪些基因？主效基因少还是小效基因多？这些问题将通过研究两个遗传特征良好的家鼠物种--小鼠和家鼠--的自然杂交群体中大量分子标记的基因流动，以及通过对它们之间的实验室杂交进行功能分析来解决。这项研究的目标是确定促成家鼠物种形成的基因的数量和生物学功能。这项研究将涉及捷克共和国和日本的博士后研究人员、研究生和本科生以及科学家。家鼠是重要的生物医学模型，该项目中确定的许多物种形成基因可能有助于揭示对人类生殖和生存至关重要的基因。

With over 9 million species estimated to exist on Earth, understanding the factors, both ecological and genetic, that contribute to species formation is a central problem in the biological sciences. While a half-century of research on the genetic basis of speciation has revealed some general insights, only a handful of genes contributing to speciation have been identified; thus, many questions remain. For example, what kinds of genes are involved in speciation? Are there few genes of major effect or many genes of small effect? These questions will be addressed by studying gene flow across a larger number of molecular markers in naturally occurring hybrid populations of two genetically well characterized house mouse species, Mus musculus and Mus domesticus, and through functional analyses of laboratory crosses between them. The goals of the research are to identify the number and characterize the biological function of genes contributing to speciation in house mice.The research will involve the participation of postdoctoral researchers, graduate and undergraduate students and scientists in both the Czech Republic and Japan. House mice are important biomedical models and many of the speciation genes identified in this project are likely to shed light on genes important in reproduction and survival in humans.