US- Argentina Planning Visit: Ecological and Evolutionary Genomics of Cactophilic Drosophila

该奖项将支持来自美国的两名研究人员，一名资深研究人员和一名初级研究人员，在Therese A.Markow博士的指导下，计划于2010年11月访问阿根廷。这次访问的主要目标是在加州大学圣地亚哥分校、阿根廷布宜诺斯艾利斯大学、巴西S大学和智利大学的研究人员和学生之间发展在嗜猫果蝇研究方面的合作。这次规划之旅的目的是为一个国家的提案以及可能在下一年提交的其他提案制定蓝图。研究人员将比较两个独立进化的果蝇-仙人掌系统的生物学，一个在北美，另一个在南美。将讨论的研究主题包括宿主转移的进化遗传学、生殖隔离和遗传分化(物种形成)、生态相互作用和一般模式。这一跨国努力将有助于制定国际、基础广泛的战略，以管理对全球变化的反应。合作者将为该项目带来互补的技能。美国研究人员专门研究北美系统，而来自阿根廷、巴西和智利的研究人员对南美系统有丰富的经验。规划会议将与所有私人投资机构的总部机构举行电话会议，从而使至少五个国家的大量学生和博士后能够参加。

This award will support two researchers, one senior and one junior, from the U.S. under the direction of Dr. Therese A. Markow, on a planning visit to Argentina to take place in November 2010. The primary goal of this visit is to develop collaborations on Catcophilic Drosophila research between investigators and students at the University of California-San Diego, Universidad de Buenos Aires in Argentina, Universidade de São Paulo in Brazil, and Universidad de Chile in Chile. The planning trip is intended to produce the blueprint for a a PIRE proposal and possibly others to be submitted during the following year. The researchers will compare the biology of two Drosophila-cactus systems that evolved independently, one in North and the other in South America. The research topics to be discussed include the evolutionary genetics of host shifts, reproductive isolation and genetic differentiation (speciation), ecological interactions, and general patterns. This multinational effort will be useful in developing international, broad-based strategies to manage responses to global change.The collaborators will bring complementary skills to the project. The U. S. researchers specialize on the North American system while the researchers from Argentina, Brazil, and Chile have extensive experience with the South American system. The planning meetings will be teleconferenced to the home institutions of all the PIs, thus enabling the participation of a large number of students and postdocs in at least five countries.