Reconstructing evolutionary history in adaptive radiations with genomic data

用基因组数据重建适应性辐射的进化历史

• 批准号: 1556963
• 负责人: Catherine Wagner
• 金额: $ 74.75万
• 依托单位: University of Wyoming
• 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: 2016-09-01 至 2022-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1556963&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Reconstructing; evolutionary; history; adaptive; radiations

Evolutionary biologists seek to understand why there is such tremendous diversity in life forms and how these diverse forms developed over time. One approach to addressing these questions is to study and compare the genetic makeup of closely related species. Some of life's most striking examples of diversity have evolved in a process known as adaptive radiation, when a wide variety of closely related species arise from a common ancestor during a relatively brief period of time. Adaptive radiations of cichlid fishes in certain African lakes provide captivating examples of this process, where these fishes exhibit incredible diversity in color, shape, and reproductive and feeding behaviors. Recently developed technologies make it easier to obtain large amounts of genetic data from wild organisms, so that it is now possible to document thousands of times more of the genetic makeup of these species than ever before. This project will use such genomic data to study the history of species that have formed in two African cichlid fish adaptive radiations, thus improving our understanding of how and why species have evolved, and yielding greater insight into the origins of biodiversity. In addition to its scientific goals, this work will strengthen relationships with international partners in Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo through a collaborative workshop on the use of genetic data in understanding and monitoring biodiversity. It will also involve the development of educational materials for teaching about evolution and biodiversity in middle school classrooms. Adaptive radiations are exemplary systems for studying evolutionary processes due to the diversity of forms that evolve on rapid timescales. However, the rapid nature of these diversification events means that reconstructing the history of species divergence can be intensely challenging. The recent attainability of genome-wide sequence data for non-model organisms has precipitated a fundamental shift in the data that can be used to address questions related to the history of rapidly diversifying species. Such genomic datasets present new opportunities for uniting population genetics approaches with phylogenetic approaches to understand the history of species and speciation in adaptive radiation. This research will expand knowledge of how genomic data can aid in reconstructing the history of rapid adaptive radiations by studying two model cichlid adaptive radiations, Lake Kivu's haplochromine cichlids and Lake Tanganyika's tropheine cichlids. It will use newly available genomic resources to investigate the evolutionary history of these groups and the evolutionary processes influencing patterns of genetic diversity.

进化生物学家试图理解为什么生命形式有如此巨大的多样性，以及这些不同的形式是如何随着时间的推移而发展的。解决这些问题的一种方法是研究和比较密切相关物种的基因构成。生命多样性的一些最引人注目的例子是在一种被称为适应性辐射的过程中进化出来的，即在相对较短的时间内，各种密切相关的物种从同一个祖先进化而来。某些非洲湖泊中的慈鱼的适应性辐射提供了这一过程的引人入胜的例子，这些鱼在颜色、形状以及繁殖和取食行为方面表现出令人难以置信的多样性。最近开发的技术使从野生生物中获取大量基因数据变得更容易，因此现在可以记录比以往任何时候都多数千倍的这些物种的基因构成。该项目将使用这些基因组数据来研究在两种非洲慈鱼适应性辐射中形成的物种的历史，从而提高我们对物种如何以及为什么进化的理解，并对生物多样性的起源有更深入的了解。除了其科学目标外，这项工作还将通过一个关于利用遗传数据了解和监测生物多样性的合作讲习班，加强与坦桑尼亚和刚果民主共和国的国际伙伴的关系。它还将涉及开发中学课堂上讲授进化论和生物多样性的教材。由于在快速时间尺度上进化的形式的多样性，自适应辐射是用于研究进化过程的示例性系统。然而，这些多样化事件的迅速性质意味着，重建物种分化的历史可能具有极大的挑战性。最近，非模式生物全基因组序列数据的可获得性促使可用于解决与快速多样化物种历史有关的问题的数据发生了根本性转变。这些基因组数据集为将种群遗传学方法与系统发育方法相结合以了解适应性辐射中物种和物种形成的历史提供了新的机会。这项研究将通过研究基伍湖的单色素叶蝉和坦噶尼喀湖的滋养叶蝉两种模式的池鱼适应辐射，扩大基因组数据如何帮助重建快速适应辐射的历史的知识。它将利用新获得的基因组资源来研究这些群体的进化史，以及影响遗传多样性模式的进化过程。