Collaborative Research: Assembling the Euteleost Tree of Life - Addressing the Major Unresolved Problem in Vertebrate Phylogeny

该项目将涉及来自8个机构的研究人员，他们致力于解决真骨鱼类的进化关系，这些鱼类代表了脊椎动物多样性的三分之一以上。一个重要的组成部分将是教育公众关于这些动物的重要性、进化史和多样性。系统发育分析将使用来自所有真鱼科的1500个物种的20个基因的DNA序列数据，以及来自300个真鱼谱系的大约450个形态特征。由此产生的系统发育假说将用于促进对鱼类多样性进化的理解，并重新评估和修订真鱼动物的系统分类学。将真鱼系统发育作为探索鱼类形态、遗传、发育和行为多样性进化的框架，将真鱼生命之树的研究纳入科学教育。这将被开发成一份教学指南，名为“Fish ToL活动手册”，针对小学高年级和初中的儿童，并与国家科学教师协会出版社和国家4-H课后理事会合作，在非正规和学校环境中传播。本科生、研究生和博士后将直接参与研究项目。真骨鱼类包括346科2935属17419种。超过三分之二的鱼类和近三分之一的脊椎动物是真鱼动物，其中包括大多数经济上重要的鱼类，如鲑鱼、鲈鱼、鳕鱼和金枪鱼。这项研究将促进对大多数真鱼动物鲜为人知的特征的知情预测，并将大大改善理解模式生物的进化背景，如斑马鱼、河豚、丽鱼、medaka和刺鱼，这些生物是功能基因组学、遗传学和进化发育生物学新兴领域的核心。

This project will involve investigators from eight institutions working to resolve evolutionary relationships within the euteleost fishes, which represent over one third of vertebrate diversity. An important component will be education of the public on the importance, evolutionary history, and diversity of these animals. Phylogenetic analyses will employ DNA sequence data from 20 genes in 1,500 species representing all euteleost families, and approximately 450 morphological characters from 300 euteleost lineages. Resulting phylogenetic hypotheses will be used to facilitate understanding of the evolution of fish diversity and re-assess and revise the systematics of euteleosts. Research on the euteleost tree of life will be integrated into science education by using euteleost phylogeny as a framework for exploring the evolution of morphological, genetic, developmental, and behavioral diversity of fishes. This will be developed as an instructional guide, a "Fish ToL Activity Book," directed at upper elementary and middle school children and disseminated in non-formal and school settings working in partnership with the National Science Teachers Association Press and the National 4-H Afterschool Council. Undergraduates, graduate students, and postdocs will participate directly in the research project. The euteleosts include some 346 families, 2,935 genera and 17,419 species. Over two thirds of all fishes and nearly a third of all vertebrates are euteleosts, which include most of the economically important fishes such as salmons, basses, cods and tunas. This study will facilitate informed predictions about the poorly known characteristics of most euteleosts and will considerably improve the evolutionary context for understanding model organisms such as zebrafish, pufferfish, cichlids, medaka, and stickleback, which are central to the burgeoning fields of functional genomics, genetics and evolutionary developmental biology.