IRFP: Elucidating Incipient Coevolutionary Speciation Through Experimental and Transcriptomic Approaches

IRFP：通过实验和转录组学方法阐明初期共同进化物种形成

• 批准号: 1159509
• 负责人: David Hembry
• 金额: $ 16.2万
• 依托单位: Hembry David H
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-07-01 至 2016-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1159509&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: IRFP; Elucidating; Incipient; Coevolutionary; Speciation

The International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct nine to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad. This award is co-funded by the Office of International Science and Engineering and by the Evolutionary Ecology Program in the Division of Environmental Biology. This award will support an eighteen-month research fellowship by Dr. David H. Hembry to work with Dr. Atsushi Kawakita at Kyoto University in Otsu, Japan, followed by a six-month research fellowship for Dr. Hembry to work with Dr. Michael B. Eisen at the University of California, Berkeley. The role of coevolution between species in the diversification of life on earth is one of the major questions in evolutionary biology. In particular, evidence that coevolution between species in mutualistic relationships (in which members of both species benefit) promotes diversification, as well as the mechanisms by which it might do so, remains equivocal. Specialized pollination mutualisms between insects and plants, particularly those between figs and fig wasps and yuccas and yucca moths, have long been used as models for this research because the role that pollinators play in transporting their hosts' gametes makes them especially likely candidates for coevolutionary diversification. However, evidence for coevolution driving diversification in these systems is equivocal from both empirical and theoretical angles, and few studies have explicitly investigated speciation in these systems.The goal of this proposal is to use a combination of experimental and transcriptomic approaches to examine a putative case of nascent coevolutionary speciation in a specialized, insect-plant mutualism that has recently diversified on oceanic islands in French Polynesia. Leafflower moths (Lepidoptera: Gracillariidae: Epicephala) are the sole pollinators of their leafflower plant hosts (Phyllanthaceae: Phyllanthus s. l. [Glochidion]) but their larvae consume a subset of the host's seeds in return for the service of pollination. This project will ask whether mechanisms exist that promote reciprocal specialization in this mutualism, whether such specialization leads to population differentiation in the leafflower moth pollinators, and what kinds of differences in gene expression or genome sequence are evolving in tandem with this reciprocal specialization. These questions will be addressed through a combination of methods including bioassays, flower odor analysis (GC-MS), population genetics, and transcriptomics. In doing so, this study will explicitly investigate both nascent coevolutionary speciation between coevolving organisms, and the mechanisms by which such nascent speciation occurs.An understanding of the mechanisms that give rise to biodiversity, particularly in the tropics, is vital to conserving both species diversity and interaction diversity. This research has both long-term value and short term value in this regard, since Phyllanthus trees are one of the major endemic plant radiations in the South Pacific, with many rare taxa threatened by invasive species and habitat destruction. Additionally, the use of transcriptomics in the study of host-race formation in insects has clear agricultural applications. This program will facilitate the Principal Investigator's training both in next-generation sequencing methods in evolutionary biology, and his international research experience. Finally, this project will facilitate international collaboration between the Principal Investigator and research groups at Kyoto University, Japan (Dr. Atsushi Kawakita, Dr. Makoto Kato, Dr. Tomoko Okamoto, and Dr. Hirokazu Toju), Kyoto Prefectural University, Japan (Dr. Issei Ohshima), the University of California, Berkeley (Dr. Michael Eisen), and the Délégation à la Recherche, French Polynesia (Dr. Jean-Yves Meyer).

国际研究奖学金计划使美国科学家和工程师能够在国外进行9至24个月的研究。该计划的奖项提供了联合研究的机会，以及使用国外独特或互补的设施，专业知识和实验条件。该奖项由国际科学与工程办公室和环境生物学部门的进化生态学项目共同资助。 该奖项将支持由博士大卫H。亨布里与日本大津的京都大学的Atsushi Kawakita博士合作，随后亨布里博士与Michael B博士合作为期六个月的研究奖学金。他是加州大学伯克利分校教授。物种之间的协同进化在地球生命多样化中的作用是进化生物学的主要问题之一。 特别是，互惠关系中的物种之间的共同进化（两个物种的成员都受益）促进多样化的证据，以及它可能这样做的机制，仍然是模棱两可的。 昆虫和植物之间的专门授粉互惠关系，特别是无花果和无花果小蜂、丝兰和丝兰蛾之间的授粉互惠关系，长期以来一直被用作这一研究的模型，因为传粉者在运输宿主配子方面的作用使它们特别有可能成为共同进化多样化的候选人。 然而，在这些系统中的共同进化驱动多样化的证据是模棱两可的，从经验和理论的角度来看，很少有研究明确调查这些systems.The目标的目标是使用实验和转录组学的方法相结合，研究一个假定的情况下，新生的共同进化物种形成的一个专门的，昆虫-植物共生最近在法属波利尼西亚的海洋岛屿多样化。 叶蛾（鳞翅目：江蓠科：顶头蛾属）是其寄主植物叶下珠（Phyllanthaceae：Phyllanthus s. L. [算盘子]），但它们的幼虫会吃掉宿主的一部分种子，以换取授粉服务。 该项目将询问是否存在促进这种互惠关系中的相互专业化的机制，这种专业化是否会导致叶蛾传粉者的群体分化，以及基因表达或基因组序列中的哪些差异与这种相互专业化同步进化。 这些问题将通过生物测定，花气味分析（GC-MS），群体遗传学和转录组学等方法的组合来解决。 在这样做的过程中，本研究将明确调查新生的共同进化生物之间的物种形成，以及这种新生的物种形成发生的机制，特别是在热带地区的生物多样性的机制，是至关重要的保护物种多样性和相互作用的多样性。 这项研究在这方面具有长期价值和短期价值，因为叶下珠树是南太平洋主要的特有植物辐射之一，许多稀有类群受到入侵物种和栖息地破坏的威胁。 此外，转录组学在昆虫宿主种族形成研究中的应用具有明确的农业应用。 该计划将促进首席研究员在进化生物学下一代测序方法和国际研究经验方面的培训。 最后，本项目将促进首席研究员与日本京都大学研究小组之间的国际合作（Atsushi Kawakita博士、Makoto Kato博士、Tomoko Okamoto博士和Hirokazu Toju博士）、日本京都府立大学（Issei Ohshima博士）、加州大学伯克利分校（Michael Bohen博士）和法属波利尼西亚研究代表团（Jean-Yves Meyer博士）。