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Collaborative Research: Evolutionary trends and ecological drivers of eye reduction in bat flies (Hippoboscoidea)

合作研究：蝙蝠蝇（河马总科）眼睛减少的进化趋势和生态驱动因素

基本信息

批准号：
1556819
负责人：
Megan Porter
金额：
$ 35.06万
依托单位：
University of Hawaii
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2016
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2016-03-15 至 2022-07-31
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1556819&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
Collaborative Research Evolutionary trends ecological

项目摘要

Vision is an important sensory mode, and through vision, animals including humans can detect and process their orientation in space, make out shapes, sense time, move and navigate, or detect color. Vision is complex, and different solutions for vision exist across the animal kingdom, such as compound eyes in insects versus simple eyes in humans. However, many features enabling vision, such as genes, structures and signaling methods, are similar across animals. This is why insects are a useful model for our general understanding of the processes involved in making eyes functional. This project focuses on members of a group of insects that consistently live at low light levels, in a place where food and mates are close by and need not be visually recognized over large distances. The eyes of these insects have been dramatically reduced from the fully developed daylight version, but they are still functional. In studying the process of this reduction over evolutionary timeframes, this project aims to understand the sequence of events and which stimuli led to the reduction (or loss) of visual structures, and what minimum level of organization and complexity is required to maintain a functional eye. Results of this interdisciplinary research will contribute to our understanding of the robustness and adaptability of complex biological systems. This study is also directly relevant to the fields of phylogenetics, evolutionary systems biology, neurobiology and bioengineering. In addition to scientific advancement, this project will reach and train students from diverse backgrounds at all levels of education, including middle/high school, undergraduate, and graduate students. Research results will be integrated into inquiry-based education modules for middle and high school teachers. This project uses phylogenomic, histological, and molecular methods to test several hypotheses regarding the evolution of reduced, yet functional, eyes in parasitic bat flies. Bat flies are an ideal system for this type of study because 1) all species have reduced or lost eyes, and there are variations among species in the degree of reduction; 2) the group is derived from fully visual, free-living predatory ancestors, and extant species can be studied for comparative analyses; and 3) due to life history characteristics of the group, bat flies trace two distinct ecological niches - the developmental niche (where pupae are deposited) and the host niche (where adult bat flies occur in association with bats) - that introduce variations in host proximity and light environments among species. Comparative studies of the variation in host and developmental niches among species, and the resulting structural patterns in micro- and macro-eye anatomy across the phylogeny will allow for the testing of hypotheses related to 1) which ecological features are driving the evolution of eye reduction and 2) how different physical domains (e.g. macromorphology, micromorphology, and gene expression) evolve relative to these driving forces.

视觉是一种重要的感觉方式，通过视觉，包括人类在内的动物可以检测和处理它们在空间中的方位，辨认形状，感知时间，移动和导航，或者检测颜色。视觉是复杂的，在动物王国中存在不同的视觉解决方案，例如昆虫的复眼与人类的单眼。然而，许多使视觉得以实现的特征，如基因、结构和信号传导方法，在动物中是相似的。这就是为什么昆虫是一个有用的模型，我们一般的理解过程中涉及使眼睛功能。该项目的重点是一组昆虫的成员，这些昆虫一直生活在低光照水平下，在食物和配偶靠近的地方，不需要在很远的距离上进行视觉识别。这些昆虫的眼睛已经从完全发育的日光版本大幅减少，但它们仍然具有功能。在研究进化时间框架内这种减少的过程中，该项目旨在了解事件的顺序以及哪些刺激导致视觉结构的减少（或丧失），以及维持功能性眼睛所需的最低组织和复杂性水平。这项跨学科研究的结果将有助于我们理解复杂生物系统的鲁棒性和适应性。这项研究也直接关系到遗传学，进化系统生物学，神经生物学和生物工程领域。除了科学进步，该项目将接触和培训来自不同背景的学生在各级教育，包括初中/高中，本科和研究生。研究成果将被纳入初中和高中教师的探究式教育模块。该项目使用生物基因组学，组织学和分子方法来测试几个假设的进化减少，但功能，眼睛在寄生蝙蝠苍蝇。蝙蝠蝇是这类研究的理想系统，因为1）所有物种都有眼睛缩小或失去，并且在物种之间的缩小程度有所不同; 2）该群体来自完全视觉，自由生活的捕食性祖先，并且可以对现存物种进行比较分析; 3）由于该群体的生活史特征，蝙蝠苍蝇追踪两个不同的生态位-发展生态位（其中蛹沉积）和宿主生态位（其中成年蝙蝠苍蝇发生与蝙蝠）-引入物种之间的宿主接近度和光环境的变化。物种间宿主和发育生态位变化的比较研究，以及由此产生的整个生殖发育过程中微观和宏观眼解剖结构模式，将允许测试与以下相关的假设：1）哪些生态特征驱动了眼缩小的进化，以及2）不同的物理域（例如宏观形态，微观形态和基因表达）如何相对于这些驱动力进化。