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

这个项目调查了美国东部中部高地鱼类的生物地理历史。中央高地以其高水平的生物多样性而闻名，其中包括该国淡水鱼物种的最高浓度。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。物种的进化史将通过DNA序列进行分析，由此产生的系统发育树将允许对当前分布模式的原因进行测试。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。该项目具有重要意义，因为它将提供响应过去气候变化的群落结构进化史和物种分布变化的信息。对物种分布历史的了解也将有助于对未来分布变化的研究。这项研究还将为保护遗传学家提供有价值的信息，并将有助于确定保护中部高地鱼类的优先事项。本科生将参与这项研究，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.