Morphological and Phylogenetic Diversification of the Muroid Rodents

鼠类啮齿动物的形态学和系统发育多样化

• 批准号: 0841447
• 负责人: Scott Steppan
• 金额: $ 54万
• 依托单位: Florida State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-02-01 至 2016-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0841447&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Morphological; Phylogenetic; Diversification; Muroid; Rodents

Understanding how diversity of life on earth grows is a fundamental goal of evolutionary biology. To address this essential question, this research will: (1) build an evolutionary tree (phylogeny) for muroid rodents (the most diverse and successful group of mammals) using DNA sequence data from 550 muroid species, (2) conduct anatomical studies of the skulls of those species using 3D imaging tools, and (3) combine the anatomical results with the phylogenetic results to determine when and where different lineages diversify, in terms of numbers of species and modifications of the skull and dentition. The results will determine which mechanisms - adaptation, colonization of new areas, or changes in inherent "evolvability" - cause diversity to increase.This research will also have broad utility to the biomedical sciences because the muroid rodents include most of the species used in biomedical research (e.g., mouse, rat, hamster). Understanding their evolutionary history can profoundly change how we interpret those studies. The phylogeny will also serve as a road map for choosing new species for biomedical studies. In addition, the research team will train several post-doctoral researchers, graduate students, undergraduate students, and high school students in DNA sequencing, morphological analysis, and phylogenetics.

了解地球上生命的多样性如何增长是进化生物学的一个基本目标。为了解决这一基本问题，本研究将：（1）构建进化树（啮齿动物）（最多样化和最成功的哺乳动物群体）使用来自550个muroid物种的DNA序列数据，（2）使用3D成像工具对这些物种的头骨进行解剖学研究，以及（3）将解剖学结果与系统发育结果联合收割机结合，以确定不同谱系在物种数量以及头骨和齿系的变化方面何时何地多样化。研究结果将确定哪些机制--适应、新地区的殖民化或内在“进化能力”的变化--导致多样性增加。这项研究还将对生物医学科学具有广泛的实用性，因为啮齿类动物包括生物医学研究中使用的大多数物种（例如，小鼠、大鼠、仓鼠）。了解它们的进化历史可以深刻地改变我们对这些研究的解释。该物种遗传学还将作为选择生物医学研究新物种的路线图。此外，研究团队还将对多名博士后研究人员、研究生、本科生和高中生进行DNA测序、形态分析和遗传学方面的培训。