Convergent evolution of color patterns through changes in different genes

不同的动物往往进化出相似的适应性，反映出作用于不同物种的相似功能压力。 这种现象被称为趋同进化，尽管世纪以来生物学家们已经广泛承认了这一点，但对它的遗传和分子基础仍然知之甚少。 我们以前的工作表明，看似相同的性状可以通过不同物种中不同基因的变化而进化。 在这个项目中，基因组学，分子遗传学，胚胎学和比较方法的组合将被用来确定在几个独立的情况下，类似的性状已经演变的负责基因。 这项工作将解决两个关键问题。 首先，动物发育的哪些特征使其能够将不同的遗传变化转化为外表相同的形态特征？ 第二，既然进化显然可以通过不同的遗传途径来产生相同的性状，那么它实际上所经历的过程主要是由生物体的内在特征决定的，是由其种群历史决定的，还是由已知在遗传变异起源中起重要作用的变幻莫测的机会决定的？ 随着合成生物学（具有理想特性的设计或人工生物有机体）开始从猜测走向现实，理解天然遗传途径的灵活布线，允许对同一功能问题的多种解决方案，将为合成基因网络的设计提供信息。 该项目中使用的各种技术和综合方法将促进年轻科学家的培训，他们将能够理解生物系统的内部运作，并将这些经验应用于实际问题。

Different animals often evolve similar adaptations, reflecting similar functional pressures acting on different species. This phenomenon is known as convergent evolution and, although it has been widely acknowledged by biologists for more than a century, its genetic and molecular basis remains poorly understood. Our previous work has shown that seemingly identical traits can evolve by changes in different genes in different species. In this project, a combination of genomic, molecular-genetic, embryological, and comparative approaches will be used to identify the responsible genes in each of several independent cases where similar traits have evolved. Two key questions will be addressed by this work. First, what features of animal development allow it to translate different genetic changes into outwardly identical morphological characters? Second, since evolution can clearly take different genetic paths to produce the same trait, is the course it actually takes determined primarily by the intrinsic features of the organism, by its population history, or by the vagaries of chance that are known to play a large role in the origin of genetic variation? As synthetic biology (the design or artificial biological organisms with desirable properties) begins to move from speculation to reality, understanding the flexible wiring of natural genetic pathways that permits multiple solutions to the same functional problem will inform the design of synthetic gene networks. The wide variety of techniques and integrative approaches used in this project will advance the training of young scientists who will be able to understand the inner workings of biological systems and to apply these lessons to practical problems.