DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Assessing the prevalence of pseudocongruent events in the formation of biotas: a study of fish taxa of the North American Central Highlands

该项目调查美国东部中部高地鱼类的地理学历史。中部高地以其高度的生物多样性而闻名，包括该国淡水鱼类最集中的地区。该项目的目标是解释这些地区鱼类物种的复杂分布模式，以确定它们是否可以用共同的进化机制来解释。将使用DNA序列分析物种的进化历史，由此产生的系统发育树将允许测试当前分布模式的原因。在系统发育分析中使用几个基因可以精确地确定进化事件的年代，这一项目意义重大，因为它将提供有关群落结构进化历史和物种分布变化对过去气候变化的反应的信息。了解物种分布的历史也将有助于为未来分布变化的研究提供信息。这项研究还将为保护遗传学家提供有价值的信息，并将有助于确定中央高地鱼类的保护优先事项。本科生将被包括在这项研究中，并将学习分子生物学和遗传分析的方法和技术。

This project investigates the biogeographical history of fishes of the Central Highlands of the eastern United States. The Central Highlands are known for their high level of biological diversity, including the highest concentration of freshwater fish species in the country. The goal of this project is to explain the complex distributional patterns of fish species in these regions to determine whether they can be explained by common evolutionary mechanisms. The evolutionary history of species will be analyzed using DNA sequences, and resulting phylogenetic trees will allow tests of the causes of current distribution patterns. The use of several genes in the phylogenetic analysis will allow precise dating of evolutionary events.This project is significant because it will provide information on the evolutionary history of community structure and changes in species distributions in response to past climate change. An understanding of the history of species distributions will also help inform research on future changes in distribution. This research will also provide information valuable for conservation geneticists and will help set conservation priorities for Central Highlands fishes. Undergraduate students will be included in this research and will learn methods and techniques of molecular biology and genetic analysis.