The genetic consequences of phenotypic loss: Transcriptomic and genome-wide analyses of pigmentation regression in cavefish.

表型损失的遗传后果：洞穴鱼色素沉着回归的转录组学和全基因组分析。

• 批准号: 1457630
• 负责人: Joshua Gross
• 金额: $ 51.93万
• 依托单位: University of Cincinnati Main Campus
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-03-15 至 2020-02-29
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1457630&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: genetic; consequences; phenotypic; loss; Transcriptomic

Evolutionary change involves both the addition and loss of traits. Much attention has been paid to those traits that are added over time, but far less is known regarding the loss of traits. Cave-dwelling animals, such as the blind Mexican cavefish, powerfully illustrate this phenomenon since they completely lack eyes and pigmentation. This study applies cutting-edge genetic tools to understand why traits are lost in nature, and will balance our understanding of how evolution shapes and molds organisms to their environment, yielding the enormous diversity found in nature. This project includes outreach activities to engage the public with this remarkable creature. Through partnerships with local schools and the Cincinnati Zoo, the Gross lab will introduce both students and the broader community to this intriguing animal. Additionally, this research project will provide training and research opportunities at the high school, undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral levels. Further, this project will continue to facilitate interactions with the international Astyanax research community through collaborations and scientific meetings. This work will therefore have positive societal impacts for the American public as well as the international scientific community.This project aims to uncover precise genetic changes underlying evolutionary phenotypic loss. Parallel transcriptomic and genomic approaches will evaluate genetic alterations (coding versus expression levels) implicated in pigmentation loss in a powerful cave model system, Astyanax mexicanus. This freshwater fish harbors two distinct morphotypes, an "ancestral" surface- and multiple "derived" cave-dwelling forms. Some cave populations descended from an 'older' stock, and some descended from a 'younger' stock of surface-dwelling ancestors. These natural replicate experiments allow us to investigate how genetic changes are impacted by diverse influences, such as the amount of time that has passed since the colonization of a cave environment. Recently available genetic and genomic resources now enable high-resolution studies of both known and unknown pigmentation genes for structural, expression and functional analyses. This project will inform how pleiotropy and the age of independent cave populations influence the genetic changes accompanying trait loss. Ultimately, this work will help clarify our understanding of the evolutionary mechanisms (selection versus drift) leading to regression in the natural world.

进化的变化包括性状的增加和丧失。人们对那些随着时间的推移而增加的特征给予了很大的关注，但对特征的丧失却知之甚少。穴居动物，如盲墨西哥洞穴鱼，有力地说明了这一现象，因为他们完全没有眼睛和色素沉着。这项研究应用尖端的遗传工具来理解为什么性状在自然界中丢失，并将平衡我们对进化如何塑造和塑造生物体的理解，从而产生自然界中发现的巨大多样性。这个项目包括外展活动，以吸引公众与这个了不起的生物。通过与当地学校和辛辛那提动物园的合作，格罗斯实验室将向学生和更广泛的社区介绍这种有趣的动物。此外，该研究项目将提供高中，本科，研究生和博士后水平的培训和研究机会。此外，该项目将继续通过合作和科学会议促进与国际Astyanax研究界的互动。因此，这项工作将对美国公众和国际科学界产生积极的社会影响。该项目旨在揭示进化表型丧失背后的精确遗传变化。平行的转录组和基因组方法将评估涉及色素沉着损失在一个强大的洞穴模型系统，Astyanax mexicanus的遗传改变（编码与表达水平）。这种淡水鱼有两种不同的形态类型，一种是“祖先”的表面形式，另一种是多个“衍生”的洞穴居住形式。一些洞穴种群是从一个“老”的股票下降，和一些下降从一个“年轻”的股票的表面居住的祖先。这些自然复制实验使我们能够研究遗传变化如何受到不同影响的影响，例如自洞穴环境殖民化以来已经过去的时间。最近可用的遗传和基因组资源，现在使高分辨率的研究已知和未知的色素基因的结构，表达和功能分析。该项目将告知多效性和独立洞穴种群的年龄如何影响伴随性状丧失的遗传变化。最终，这项工作将有助于澄清我们对导致自然界退化的进化机制（选择与漂移）的理解。