Collaborative Research: The genomic basis of dramatic, rapid, convergent evolution in the killifish Fundulus heteroclitus

合作研究：鳉鱼Fundulusheteroclitus戏剧性、快速、趋同进化的基因组基础

• 批准号: 1120013
• 负责人: Wesley Warren
• 金额: $ 4.85万
• 依托单位: Washington University
• 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: 2011-08-01 至 2014-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1120013&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; genomic; basis; dramatic

Populations of the Atlantic killifish (Fundulus heteroclitus) inhabiting urban estuaries have rapidly and repeatedly evolved tolerance to extreme pollution stress, yet the genetic changes that enabled this adaptive tolerance are unknown. This grant will facilitate sequencing the full killifish genome, and re-sequencing of genomes from many sensitive and tolerant populations, to enable discovery of the genetic changes that facilitated tolerance to human pollutants, and address whether there are a few or many genetic variants that confer tolerance or sensitivity to pollution among the many different populations inhabiting polluted sites.A major ambition of both evolutionary biology and medical genetics is to identify the genetic variants within and among populations that contribute to an individual's tolerance to stress or disease. For example, human individuals vary in their sensitivity to disease and environmental pollutants, and a portion of this variation has a genetic basis. Studies of the genomic changes in killifish exposed to pollutants provide an excellent opportunity to discover the genetic basis of individual sensitivity to common environmental pollutants in a vertebrate animal that shares many traits with humans. This research could identify genetic variants that contribute to human sensitivity to environmental pollutant exposures and also offer detailed insight into fundamental mechanisms of the evolutionary process.

居住在城市河口的大西洋鳉鱼（Fundulusheteroclitus）种群迅速且反复地进化出了对极端污染压力的耐受性，但实现这种适应性耐受性的基因变化尚不清楚。 这笔赠款将有助于对鳉鱼的完整基因组进行测序，并对许多敏感和耐受性种群的基因组进行重新测序，以发现促进人类污染物耐受性的基因变化，并解决居住在污染地点的许多不同种群中是否存在少数或许多遗传变异赋予对污染的耐受性或敏感性。进化生物学和医学的一个主要目标 遗传学的目的是识别人群内部和人群之间有助于个体对压力或疾病的耐受性的遗传变异。 例如，人类个体对疾病和环境污染物的敏感性存在差异，而这种差异的一部分具有遗传基础。 对暴露于污染物的鳉鱼基因组变化的研究提供了一个绝佳的机会，以发现与人类有许多共同特征的脊椎动物对常见环境污染物的个体敏感性的遗传基础。 这项研究可以识别导致人类对环境污染物暴露敏感的遗传变异，并提供对进化过程基本机制的详细见解。