International Research Fellowship Program: Evolutionary Reproductive Genomics in Humans and Great Apes

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到24个月的研究。 该计划的奖项提供了合作研究的机会，并利用独特或互补的设施，专业知识和国外的实验条件。该奖项将支持杰弗里·古德博士与斯万特·帕博博士在德国马克斯·普朗克研究所合作24个月的研究奖学金。涉及生殖的基因通常在动物中进化得非常快，但对导致这种分歧的进化力量仍然知之甚少。 理论预测，一个物种内与繁殖相关的特征的进化应该受到潜在的交配系统的强烈影响，最快速的进化分歧发生在雌性经常与多个雄性交配的物种中。 这一假设尚未在分子水平上得到广泛验证。 在关系密切的类人猿（包括人类）中，交配系统存在着显著的差异，这为测试交配行为对生殖基因进化的影响提供了一个强有力的系统。 该研究项目结合了DNA的高通量测序，进化遗传分析和灵长类生物学的详细知识，以解决男性生殖的分子进化的基本问题。 本研究有两个主要目的。 首先，倭黑猩猩（潘paniscus）和大猩猩（大猩猩大猩猩）种群的遗传变异模式的特点，以推断这些物种的人口历史，从而使统计模型的使用，旨在检测积极的自然选择。 第二，在倭黑猩猩、大猩猩和人类的群体样本中，大量雄性生殖基因的分子进化模式正在被描述。 这三个密切相关的物种表现出非常不同的交配系统，在倭黑猩猩中发现了最高水平的雌性再交配。 因此，遗传数据被用来测试倭黑猩猩的雄性生殖基因是否比大猩猩和人类更容易受到积极选择的影响。 此外，这些数据被用来推断哺乳动物雄性生殖的哪些方面受到这些物种中最强烈的进化压力。 这项研究正在完善我们对基本进化过程，男性生殖生物学以及人类与我们最近亲属之间适应性差异的遗传变化的理解。

0754461GoodThe 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. Jeffrey Good to work with Dr. Svante Paabo at Max Planck Institute in Germany.Genes involved in reproduction often evolve very rapidly in animals, yet the evolutionary forces driving this divergence remain poorly understood. Theory predicts that the evolution of reproduction-related characters within a species should be strongly influenced by the underlying mating system, with the most rapid evolutionary divergence occurring in species where females frequently mate with multiple males. This hypothesis has not been broadly tested at the molecular level. Strikingly different mating systems occur among closely related species of great apes (including humans), providing a powerful system to test the influence of mating behavior on the evolution of reproductive genes. This research project combines high-throughput sequencing of DNA, evolutionary genetic analyses, and detailed knowledge of primate biology to address fundamental questions on the molecular evolution of male reproduction. There are two primary objectives of this study. First, patterns of genetic variation in populations of bonobos (Pan paniscus) and gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) are being characterized to infer the demographic history of these species, thereby enabling the use of statistical models designed to detect positive natural selection. Second, patterns of molecular evolution are being described for a large set of male reproductive genes in population samples of bonobos, gorillas, and humans. These three closely related species show very different mating systems with the highest levels of female re-mating found in bonobos. Thus, genetic data are being used to test if male reproductive genes in bonobos are subject to a greater intensity and frequency of positive selection relative to gorillas and humans. Moreover, these data are being used to infer which general aspects of mammalian male reproduction are subject to the most intense evolutionary pressures across these species. This study is refining our understanding of basic evolutionary processes, male reproductive biology, and the genetic changes that underlie adaptive divergence between humans and our closest relatives.