OPUS: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology of Desert Drosophila

一个世纪以来，对果蝇的实验室研究对于发现遗传的基本原理至关重要。相比之下，人们对果蝇在自然界中的经历知之甚少；拟议中的工作将纠正以仙人掌为食的果蝇的问题。一些果蝇物种适应了生活在非常恶劣的沙漠环境中，在那里它们利用腐烂的仙人掌作为食物和繁殖场所。这位调查者研究了四种这样的果蝇的生态学、遗传学和行为已有30多年。她对这项工作的综合将导致一本书，这本书将第一次概述这些昆虫的生物学和遗传学相对于它们的许多生态学特征。这一合成有望为未来的研究方向指明方向，不仅是针对适应沙漠的果蝇，也包括其他生物。此外，还将开发一个关于资源可获得性和苍蝇种群动态的在线数据库，并以英文和西班牙文提供。该数据库将为一系列生态学家、进化生物学家和教育家提供资源。处于这种合成中心的生物生活在美国和墨西哥的沙漠中。这项合成和双语网站不仅将使两国的研究人员和学生能够获得关于这些苍蝇及其资源的长期数据，而且还将导致更多的国际合作研究。此外，调查员曾在偏远地区工作，她的经验将被纳入综合报告，这将有助于鼓励其他女性调查员从事类似的研究。

For a century, laboratory studies of Drosophila fruit flies have been crucial to discovering basic principles of heredity. In contrast, little has been known of what fruit flies experience in nature; the proposed work will rectify that problem in the case of cactus-feeding flies. Some fruit fly species are adapted to living in very harsh desert environments where they exploit decaying cacti as feeding and breeding sites. The investigator has studied the ecology, genetics and behavior of four such Drosophila species for over 30 years. Her synthesis of this work will result in a book that will provide the first overview of the biology and genetics of these insects relative to many features of their ecology. The synthesis is expected to point the way for future research directions not only with desert-adapted Drosophila, but also other organisms. In addition, an on-line database of resource availability and fly population dynamics will be developed and made available in English and Spanish. The database will provide a resource to a range of ecologists, evolutionary biologists and educators. The organisms at the center of this synthesis live in deserts in the United States and Mexico. The synthesis and the bilingual website will not only allow investigators and students from both countries to access the long-term data on these flies and their resources, but will lead to additional international collaborative studies. In addition, the investigator has worked in remote areas and her experiences, which will be incorporated in the synthesis, will serve to encourage other female investigators to pursue similar studies.