Multilocus analyses of co-diversification and phylogenetic incongruence between highly coevolved figs and fig wasps

这个项目将研究相互依赖的相互作用的物种是如何导致彼此进化的。一个广泛的目标是了解这种相互作用如何影响地球上生命的多样性。研究人员将研究生态上最重要的、高度多样化的系统之一，以研究这些相互作用：无花果、它们的黄蜂传粉者，以及相关的以无花果为食但不为其授粉的寄生蜂群体。他们计划测试这一新的假设，即一些黄蜂能够转移到新的宿主上，这些宿主的转移最终会导致黄蜂物种之间的遗传差异缩小，从而打破物种的障碍。该项目将对农业和粮食生产产生重要影响，因为无花果-无花果黄蜂系统中的相同过程也决定了作物-害虫和作物-传粉者的关系。许多大学生和青年科学家将接受科学培训。该项目的一个独特的教育方面是生物学国际实地考察课程，该课程将允许每年12名本科生在巴拿马进行国际实地研究。研究方法是多学科的，涉及系统发育、种群遗传学和挥发性化学。基因组测序将用于：1)获得中美洲无花果和无花果黄蜂物种之间遗传亲缘关系的进化树，2)鉴定出人意料地相互杂交(杂交)的无花果物种亚群，3)将无花果杂交与用于吸引传粉者的花香的变化联系起来，这些香气也被寄生虫利用来定位寄主植物。由于该项目将包括许多无花果和无花果黄蜂物种，它将提供所需的广泛参考框架，以深入了解相互作用的无花果和黄蜂谱系共同多样化的模式和过程所依据的生物和化学机制。

This project will investigate how interacting species that depend on each other for their own livelihood cause each other to evolve. A broad goal is to understand how such interactions influence the diversification of life on Earth. The researchers will study one of the most ecologically important, highly diverse systems for studying these interactions: figs, their wasp pollinators, and the associated group of parasitic wasps that feed on figs but that don't pollinate them. They plan to test the novel hypothesis that some wasps are able to move onto new hosts, and that these host shifts ultimately lead to decreased genetic differences among wasp species, and thus a breakdown of species' barriers. The project will have important implications for agriculture and food production because the same processes at work in this fig-fig wasp system also determine crop-pest and crop-pollinator relationships. Many college students and young scientists will receive scientific training. A unique educational aspect of the project is the International Field Trip in Biology course, which will allow 12 undergraduates per year to conduct international field research in Panama. The research approach is multidisciplinary, involving phylogenetics, population genetics, and volatile chemistry. Genomic sequencing will be used to: 1) obtain well-resolved evolutionary trees of genetic relatedness among Central American fig and fig wasp species, 2) identify subsets of fig species that are, unexpectedly, interbreeding (hybridizing) with each other, and 3) link hybridization of figs to changes in the floral "perfumes" used to attract pollinators, and which are also exploited by parasites to locate host plants. Because this project will include numerous fig and fig wasp species, it will provide the broad frame of reference needed to gain an in depth understanding of the biological and chemical mechanisms underlying the pattern and process of co-diversification across interacting fig and wasp lineages.