Collaborative research: Estimating speciation/reticulation boundaries in asexual Alternaria: A genomics approach

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。了解物种如何形成（物种形成）是分类学和进化领域研究的一个基本领域，也是所有比较生物学研究的基础。然而，目前大多数关于物种形成的理论都是基于有性繁殖的生物，而对于无性繁殖的无性生物是如何发生这一过程的，我们知之甚少。然而，许多生物群体，特别是真菌，包含无性谱系，这似乎是生物多样性的一个共同和不可分割的部分。因此，了解无性真菌的物种形成提供了一个很好的机会来发展所有分类群的物种形成的统一概念。本项目将研究无性真菌Alternaria属的物种形成，这是世界上最常见和最重要的真菌类群之一。这些真菌是几乎所有生态系统中腐烂的关键病原体，并导致许多重要的植物、动物和人类疾病。本研究的目标包括建立一个包含14个互花孢属物种的大型基因组数据库，包括两个生态上不同的物种群，并制定定量物种识别和划界的标准。该方案将培养真菌学和生物信息学领域的研究生，这将有助于培养具有广泛计算背景的新一代生物学家。总之，该项目有望为有性和无性生物的进化研究提供一个新的模式。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Understanding how species form (speciation) is a fundamental area of study in the fields of taxonomy and evolution, and is the basis of all studies in comparative biology. However, most current theories of speciation are based upon organisms that reproduce sexually, and little is known about how this process occurs in asexual organisms that reproduce clonally. Nevertheless, many groups of organisms, especially Fungi, encompass asexual lineages, which appear to be a common and integral part of biological diversity. Thus, understanding speciation in asexual fungi provides an excellent opportunity to develop a unifying concept of speciation across all taxa. This project will examine speciation in the asexual fungal genus Alternaria, one of the most common and important fungal groups world-wide. These fungi are critical agents of decay in nearly every ecosystem and cause a number of important plant, animal, and human diseases. Objectives of the proposed study include the development of a large genomic database encompassing 14 Alternaria species in two ecologically distinct species groups, and to develop criteria for quantitative species recognition and delimitation. The proposal will train graduate students in the field of mycology and bioinformatics, which will contribute to a new generation of biologists with broad computational background. Overall, it is expected that this project will serve as a new model for evolutionary research on both sexual and asexual organisms.