DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Evolvability and diversification: testing macroevolutionary predictions in cone snails.

了解为什么某些生物体群体比其他生物体群体更加多样化是进化生物学的中心目标。进化性，即一个谱系对进化变化的内在能力，被认为影响着整个生命树上多样性的差异。在较长的进化时间尺度上，具有较高进化能力的生物群应该(A)具有更高的物种丰富度和(B)表现出更大的形态多样性。锥螺属内的肉食性物种提供了一个独特的机会来检验进化性假说，因为它们使用猎物特有的毒液来捕获猎物，并在放射状形态上表现出广泛的多样性。利用毒液基因的多样性和放射状形态的差异，这项研究将证明进化性如何塑造该属的生物多样性。一名研究生将接受培训，研究结果将通过加州大学洛杉矶分校的“探索你的宇宙”公共科学活动广泛传播。还将通过与设在巴厘岛的印度尼西亚生物多样性研究中心合作，加强与印度尼西亚共和国的国际研究基础设施。此外，该研究项目产生的数据还将导致快速发现新的毒液蛋白，大大增加这些可用于治疗慢性疼痛、癫痫和其他神经系统疾病的天然产品的数量。锥形蜗牛的毒液多样性是广泛的，其中很大一部分是通过基因复制产生的。理论预测，更高的基因多样性赋予产生新的特化和适应特征的更大潜力。因此，如果圆锥体的毒液基因多样性导致不同程度的进化性，那么进化性将与(A)物种形成率、(B)毒液蛋白的结构多样性和(C)杆状形态的进化率呈正相关。研究人员将使用下一代测序来生成数据，这些数据将用于重建螺头属的分子系统学，以及关于谱系内毒液基因多样性的物种水平数据。研究人员还将使用扫描电子显微镜产生的图像来量化神经束的形态。有了这些数据，研究人员将使用比较的系统发育方法来测试进化性对锥形蜗牛长期多样性的影响。

Understanding why some groups of organisms are more diverse than others is a central goal in evolutionary biology. Evolvability, or the intrinsic capacity of a lineage for evolutionary change, is thought to influence disparities in diversity across the tree of life. Over long evolutionary time scales, groups of organisms that have higher evolvability should (a) have higher species richness and (b) display greater morphological diversity. Carnivorous species within the cone snail genus Conus offer a unique opportunity to test the hypothesis of evolvability because they use prey-specific venom to capture prey and exhibit extensive diversity in radular morphology. Using the diversity of venom genes and differences in radular morphology, this research will document how evolvability may shape biodiversity in the genus. One graduate student will be trained and results from the research will be broadly disseminated through the 'Exploring Your Universe' public science event at UCLA. International research infrastructure with the Republic of Indonesia will also be enhanced through collaboration with the Indonesian Biodiversity Research Center in Bali. In addition, data generated from this research project will also lead to the rapid discovery of novel venom proteins, greatly increasing the number of these natural products that could be developed for the treatment of chronic pain, epilepsy and other neurological diseases. Venom diversity in cone snails is extensive, with much of this diversity having arisen through gene duplication. Theory predicts that higher gene diversity confers a greater potential to generate novel traits for specialization and adaptation. Therefore, if venom gene diversity in Conus gives rise to varying levels of evolvability, then evolvability will be positively correlated with (a) speciation rates, (b) structural diversity of venom proteins, and (c) evolutionary rates of radular morphology. Researchers will use next-generation sequencing to generate data that will be used to reconstruct a molecular phylogeny of Conus, in addition to species-level data on venom gene diversity within the lineage. The researchers will also quantify radular morphology using images generated from scanning electron microscopy. With these data, the researchers will use comparative phylogenetic methods to test the influence of evolvability on long-term diversification within cone snails.