Genome-level resolution of species boundaries and phylogeny of the North American tiger salamander radiation

虎蝾螈被用于一系列生物学和生物医学研究，由于易于饲养和实验操作，重点放在单一物种墨西哥蝾螈上。然而，这个物种只是虎蝾螈庞大而多样的辐射的一个代表。总的来说，这个群体可以作为从物种形成到再生的研究模型系统，但对于实际存在的物种数量知之甚少，对它们的自然历史、进化、发展和关系知之甚少。这项研究将利用新的分子技术和现有的遗传数据，对北美虎蝾螈物种多样性进行全面评估，并将这些物种置于一个比较框架中，以了解它们的进化。同时，还将开发新的统计工具，以识别受到自然选择等其他因素独特影响的基因。这项研究在统计学和生物学研究项目之间建立了强有力的联系，随着生物学进一步进入基因组学领域，这是一种越来越重要的合作形式。将提供博士后和研究生水平的人力资源支持和培训，并将本基金聘用的人员纳入现代多学科研究计划。这项工作将导致在自然分布的生物体的种群水平上收集最大的遗传数据集之一。

Tiger salamanders are used in a range of biological and biomedical research, with much emphasis placed on a single species, the Mexican Axolotl, due to ease of rearing and experimental manipulation. However, this species is just one representative of a large and diverse radiation of tiger salamanders. Collectively, this group can serve as a model system for research ranging from speciation to regeneration, but little is known about how many species actually exist and little is known about their natural history, evolution, development, and relationships. This research will leverage new molecular technologies and existing genetic data to provide a comprehensive assessment of tiger salamander species diversity across North America and place these species into a comparative framework to understand their evolution. Concurrently, there will be development of new statistical tools to identify genes that have been uniquely influenced by other factors, such as natural selection.This research forges a strong link between statistical and biological research programs, an increasingly important form of collaboration as Biology moves further into the realm of genomics. Support and training of human resources will be provided at the postdoctoral and graduate level and persons employed by this grant will be integrated into a modern and multidisciplinary research program. This work will result in the collection of one of the largest set of genetic data at the level of populations for a naturally distributed organism.