RUI: Collaborative Research: Phylogenomics of Anthozoa (Cnidaria): new approaches to long-standing problems

在世界范围内，人类和无数其他物种依靠珊瑚礁提供庇护所、食物和生计。大气中二氧化碳的增加正在导致世界海洋变得更加温暖和酸性，这种化学变化可能会阻止珊瑚形成碳酸钙骨架。然而，化石记录表明，在过去的地质时代，一些珊瑚群体曾在类似的环境危机中幸存下来，海洋化学的变化可能导致不同类型的骨骼或缺乏骨骼的珊瑚的进化。了解这些过去的进化转变以及它们发生的环境条件，可能有助于科学家预测今天的造礁珊瑚对未来气候变化的反应。这个由主要的本科生机构哈维·马德学院和美国自然历史博物馆的研究人员合作的项目将调查珊瑚化石(珊瑚、海葵和近亲)中碳酸钙骨骼的进化。他们将首先生成一个广泛的时间校准的群体分子系统学，然后使用这个进化框架来研究骨骼特征的进化。来自科学界代表性不足群体的学生将通过PI对少数族裔服务的纽约城市理工学院和斯克里普斯学院本科生的指导参与这项研究，斯克里普斯学院是洛杉矶地区为高中女生提供的一个项目。该项目还将为美国自然历史博物馆的珊瑚公开展示制作各种外展材料。尽管以前的分子系统发育研究发现了珊瑚虫某些目之间关系的有力支持，但树的关键区域仍然没有得到很好的解析，阻碍了理解该类群内特征进化的努力。首先，通过对珊瑚虫8个远亲分类群的完整基因组进行测序，研究人员将设计一组可用于整个珊瑚虫的超保守元件(UCES)。然后，将为192个珊瑚虫物种生成UCE序列，这些物种跨越该群体内的多样性，以生成该群体内关系的第一个系统发育评估。然后，研究人员将使用这一系统发育树和一系列不同的比较方法来推断骨骼发生进化转变的方向、时间和古气候相关性，以及使珊瑚虫能够设计地球上最大生物结构的分支内的其他特征。

Worldwide, humans and countless other species are dependent on coral reefs for shelter, sustenance and livelihoods. Increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide is causing the world's oceans to become warmer and more acidic, a chemical change that may prevent corals from forming calcium carbonate skeletons. The fossil record indicates, however, that some groups of corals have survived similar environmental crises in past geological eras, and that changes in ocean chemistry may result in the evolution of different types of skeletons or of corals that lack skeletons. Understanding these past evolutionary transitions and the environmental conditions under which they occurred may help scientists predict the responses of today's reef-building corals to future climate change. This collaborative project between researchers from Harvey Mudd College, a Principally Undergraduate Institution, and the American Museum of Natural History will investigate the evolution of calcium carbonate skeletons in Anthozoa (corals, sea anemones, and relatives). They will first generate an extensive time-calibrated molecular phylogeny of the group and then use this evolutionary framework to study the evolution of skeletal characters. Students from groups underrepresented in the sciences will participate in this research through the PI's mentoring of undergraduates at the minority-serving New York City College of Technology, and the Scripps College Academy, a program for high school girls in the Los Angeles area. The project will also generate diverse outreach materials for a public display on corals at the American Museum of Natural History. Although previous molecular phylogenetic studies have found strong support for relationships among some orders of Anthozoa, key regions of the tree remain poorly resolved, impeding efforts to understand character evolution within the group. By first sequencing complete genomes from eight distantly related taxa of Anthozoa researchers will then design a set of Ultra-Conserved Elements (UCEs) that can be used throughout Anthozoa. UCE sequences will then be generated for 192 Anthozoa species spanning diversity within the group to generate the first phylogenomic estimate of relationships within the group. The researchers will then use this phylogenetic tree and a diverse set of comparative methods to infer the direction, timing and paleoclimatic correlates of evolutionary transitions in skeletogenesis and other traits within the clade that have allowed anthozoans to engineer the largest biological structures on the planet.