Collaborative Research: Genes, environment and gene expression in a wild primate population

了解复杂性状的表达和进化需要测量这些性状背后的遗传变异。这反过来又需要了解基因、环境和生物体所表现出的性状之间的相互作用，特别是基因与环境相互作用（GEI）的性质。当两种不同的基因型对环境变化的反应不同时，GEI就会出现。令人惊讶的是，人们对自然种群中的GEI知之甚少，尽管GEI在所有已知的生物体中普遍存在，包括人类。该项目将通过研究野生哺乳动物种群中GEI的多个方面来解决这一差距。该项目利用了对肯尼亚南部安博塞利盆地野生狒狒的长期实地研究，其中个别已知动物已连续观察38年。研究人员将测试关于GEI影响成年狒狒性状变异的方式以及GEI影响常设遗传变异的方式的假设。 拟议中的项目将继续并延长调查人员培训美国和肯尼亚学生的悠久历史。该项目将产生几个独特的数据集，这些数据集将引起更广泛的科学界的兴趣，并且没有其他自然灵长类种群。此外，研究所还与其他一些科学家分享了其综合长期数据库的设计和实施情况，并为研究项目开发了一个网站（www.princeton.edu/cubaboon），作为向公众提供信息和数据的工具。

Understanding the expression and evolution of complex traits requires, among other things, measuring the genetic variation that underlies these traits. This in turn requires an understanding of the interplay between genes, the environment, and the traits an organism displays, specifically the nature of gene by environment interactions (GEIs). GEIs arise when two different genotypes respond differently to a change in the environment. Surprisingly little is known about GEIs in natural populations, although GEIs are pervasive in all known organisms, including humans. This project will address this gap by examining multiple aspects of GEIs in a wild mammal population. The project takes advantage of a long-term field study of wild baboons in the Amboseli basin in southern Kenya, in which individually known animals have been under continuous observation for 38 years. The investigators will test hypotheses about the ways in which GEIs influence variation in traits of adult baboons, and the manner in which GEIs affect standing genetic variation. The proposed project will continue and extend the investigators' long history of training American and Kenyan students. The project will generate several unique data sets that will be of interest to the wider scientific community, and which are available for no other natural primate population. In addition, PIs have shared the design and implementation of their comprehensive long term database (BABASE) with a number of other scientists, and have also developed a website for the research project (www.princeton.edu/~baboon) which serves as a vehicle for providing information and data to the public.