Collaborative Research: Human Origins and the Molecular Genetic Basis of Craniofacial Evolution

灵长类动物的头部，包括人类，都有相同的基本部分，但每个头部都是不同的。颅面变异对饮食、防御、姿势、平衡、听觉、视觉和适应不断扩大的灵长类大脑具有重要意义。头骨是一种复杂的适应性结构，自然会产生有关组装和协调其形状的遗传机制的问题。这个项目将确定在现存的猴子和猿、它们的化石祖先、现存的800只狒狒的谱系以及实验室小鼠中，头部形状的变化是否沿着相似的解剖轴发生。计算机断层扫描（CT）将从这些头部获得，并用于测量三维变化。导致这种变异的基因将通过狒狒和老鼠的数据来确定。哺乳动物之间的发育途径是相同的，因此小鼠为灵长类动物的发现提供了重要的比较和实验基础。通过结合比较DNA序列和生物信息学分析，以及通过在小鼠中观察到的与狒狒相似的基因变化来研究头部形状基因结构变化的方式。毫无疑问，许多基因促成了像头部这样的结构，现代进化和发育遗传学面临的一个普遍挑战是，了解在数百万年的进化过程中，在不同的进化分支中，是否有一些基因反复参与复杂特征的类似变化，或者是否在每个例子中，共享发育途径中的不同基因都负有责任。该项目将产生大量数据，这些数据将连同有关分析方法和分析的信息一起公布在一个可公开访问的网站上。ppi在培养女性和少数民族学生方面有着良好的记录，他们将在从本科到博士后的各个层次上继续这一传统。人类进化研究有很强的公众吸引力，这个项目将特别受公众媒体的欢迎。

The heads of primates, including humans, all have the same basic parts, yet every head is different. Craniofacial variation has important implications for diet, defense, posture, balance, hearing, vision, and the accommodation of the expanding primate brain. The skull is a complex adaptive structure, and the question naturally arises pertaining to the genetic mechanisms that assemble and coordinate its shape. This project will determine whether variation in head shape occurs along similar anatomical axes among living monkeys and apes, their fossil ancestors, a pedigree of 800 extant baboons, and in laboratory mice. Computerized tomography (CT) scans will be acquired from these heads and used to measure variation in three dimensions. The genes responsible for this variation will be identified using data from baboon and mouse. Developmental pathways are shared among mammals, so mice provide an important comparative and experimental basis for primate findings. The manner by which genes structure variation in head shape will be investigated by combined comparative DNA sequence and bioinformatic analysis, and by engineering similar changes in mice to those seen in baboons. Many genes doubtlessly contribute to structures like the head, and a general challenge to modern evolutionary and developmental genetics generally is to understand whether some genes are repeatedly involved in similar changes in complex traits over the millions of years and different branches of evolution, or whether different genes in the shared developmental pathways are responsible in each instance.The project will generate a large amount of data which will be posted on a publicly accessible website along with information on analytical approaches and analyses. The PIs have a strong record of training women and minority students and they will continue this tradition at all levels from undergraduate to postdoctoral. Human evolutionary studies have a strong public appeal and this project will be exceptionally popular to the public media.