Comparative Phylogeography of Small Mammals in Montane Africa: Integrating Climatic History and Genetic Variation

非洲山地小型哺乳动物的比较系统发育地理学：整合气候历史和遗传变异

• 批准号: 1110682
• 负责人: Michael Hickerson
• 金额: $ 1.39万
• 依托单位: CUNY Queens College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-05-01 至 2013-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1110682&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Comparative; Phylogeography; Small; Mammals; Montane

This project investigates how climatic fluctuations over the Plio-Pleistocene have affected the geographical distribution, demographic history and genetic structure of five species of co-distributed Eastern Afromontane small mammals in the Albertine and Kenyan Rifts. In African montane forests, the expansion and contraction of habitats may have played an important role in shaping the diversity of mammalian communities where centers of taxonomic and genetic diversity are predicted to be coincident with areas that acted as persistent forest refugia during glacial maxima. My study jointly utilizes species distribution models and multi-locus molecular genetic data to investigate how geographic and climatic processes have driven these evolutionary and ecological processes. Questions to be addressed include whether and by what forces taxa are continuing to diverge and how historical scenarios shaped current patterns of lineage and genetic diversity. This research uses next-generation sequencing to generate large numbers of loci that will allow fine-scale inference of population genetic patterns and more precise inferences regarding demographic history. Results from this work can be used to assess the conservation and evolutionary significance of African montane mammal species in an imperiled global biodiversity hotspot and delineate sub-regions that harbor historically persistent lineages. Collaboration with Kenyan researchers will enhance professional credentials of developing African scientists as well as contribute to taxonomic descriptions of new species being uncovered in this project. This study will also provide undergraduates an introduction to new approaches in molecular biological research, including phylogenomic analysis, that are applicable to diverse sets of biological and biomedical fields.

该项目调查了上新世-更新世的气候波动如何影响了艾伯丁和肯尼亚裂谷中五种共同分布的东非山地小型哺乳动物的地理分布、人口历史和遗传结构。在非洲山地森林，栖息地的扩张和收缩可能发挥了重要作用，在塑造哺乳动物群落的分类和遗传多样性的中心预测是一致的地区，作为持久的森林避难所在冰川极大期的多样性。我的研究联合利用物种分布模型和多位点分子遗传数据来研究地理和气候过程如何驱动这些进化和生态过程。要解决的问题包括分类群是否以及通过什么力量继续分化，以及历史情景如何塑造当前的谱系和遗传多样性模式。这项研究使用下一代测序来产生大量的基因座，这将允许对人口遗传模式进行精细的推断，并对人口统计学史进行更精确的推断。这项工作的结果可用于评估非洲山地哺乳动物物种的保护和进化意义，在一个危险的全球生物多样性热点和划定的子区域，历史上持久的血统。与肯尼亚研究人员的合作将提高发展中非洲科学家的专业资格，并有助于对该项目中发现的新物种进行分类学描述。这项研究还将为本科生介绍分子生物学研究的新方法，包括生物基因组分析，适用于生物和生物医学领域的不同领域。