CAREER: Integrating phylogenetics and development to investigate character evolution in hydrozoans

本计画旨在增进我们对水螅动物演化基础的了解。水螅虫属于刺胞动物门，一组海洋无脊椎动物，代表最早的动物群体之一。虽然水螅虫只由两层细胞和几种不同的细胞类型构成，但它们在整体体型和生命周期方面表现出令人难以置信的多样性。这项研究将测试的假设，水螅虫的多样性在很大程度上是由于进化的变化，在调节发育基因。这将通过检查候选基因中的关键形态特征和发育基因表达模式来研究。这些字符状态和基因表达模式将在系统发育框架内进行分析，使用的方法，可以测试基因表达和形态特征的变化之间的相关性。这项研究不仅将增强我们对形态进化的遗传基础的理解，而且将为在进化框架内研究发育生物学提供创新方法。 这些研究方法将被纳入遗传学、进化和发展课程。几名本科生，两名研究生和一名博士后研究员将接受该项目的培训。这项研究的数据将用于为现有的教育网站开发练习，旨在帮助那些教授进化论的人。

This project aims to advance our understanding of the developmental basis of evolutionary change in Hydrozoa. Hydrozoans belong to the phylum Cnidaria, a group of marine invertebrates that represent one of the earliest animal groups. Although hydrozoans are constructed from just two cell layers and a few different cell types, they display incredible diversity in overall body form and life cycles. This study will test the hypothesis that hydrozoan diversity is in large part a result of evolutionary changes in the regulation of developmental genes. This will be investigated through examination of key morphological characters and developmental gene expression patterns in candidate genes. These character states and gene expression patterns will be analyzed within a phylogenetic framework, using methods that can test for correlations between changes in gene expression and morphological characters. This research will not only enhance our understanding of the genetic basis for morphological evolution, but will provide innovative methods for studying developmental biology within an evolutionary framework. These research methods will be integrated into courses on phylogenetics, evolution and development. Several undergraduates, two graduate students and a postdoctoral researcher will be trained on this project. Data from this research will be used to develop exercises for an existing educational website aimed to help those who teach evolution.