EAPSI: Forging Trans-Pacific Partnerships to Investigate Terrestrial Transitions in Tropical Land Crabs

了解生物体如何利用遗传变异来适应新的栖息地是进化生物学中的一个悬而未决的问题。陆蟹是一种反复在陆地栖息地定居的物种，但目前对其潜在的遗传机制知之甚少，这种机制导致了令人印象深刻的身体和生理适应，使它们能够成功地在陆地上生活。这个项目将把研究人员与世界上的一个人联系起来。新加坡国立大学（NUS）的Peter Ng教授，以及甲壳动物进化生物学领域的主要研究人员在甲壳动物学会（TCS）的年中会议上发表了讲话。研究人员将在李光前自然历史博物馆研究螃蟹，并与吴教授及其研究小组合作，了解螃蟹的生物学和分类学。这个项目的结果将为一个更大的研究项目奠定坚实的基础，该项目旨在进一步了解生物学中最重要的生命史转变之一。在她的博士论文工作中，她计划通过整合分类学、系统发育学和下一代测序技术来探索短爪地蟹表现出的海洋到陆地过渡的机制，但在开始这个更大的项目之前，她将首先建立一个坚实的分类学和系统的认识。对于EAPSI来说，研究者将在世界的指导下进行这些课题的培训？新加坡国立大学的Peter Ng教授是螃蟹系统学的权威。她将检查并收集保存在LKCNHM的陆地蟹标本的DNA亚样本，LKCNHM是世界上保存陆地蟹最多的地方之一。此外，她将出席TCS的年中会议，并与其他致癌学家建立网络，形成更多的国际合作和伙伴关系。该奖项由美国国家科学基金会和新加坡国家研究基金会共同资助，隶属于东亚和太平洋暑期研究所项目，支持美国研究生进行暑期研究。

Understanding how organisms utilize genetic variation to adapt to new habitats is an open question in evolutionary biology. Land crabs are a group that have repeatedly colonized terrestrial habitats, yet little is currently known about the underlying genetic machinery that has led to the impressive physical and physiological adaptations that have allowed them to live successfully on land. This project will connect the researcher with one of the world?s leading authorities on land crab biology, Professor Peter Ng at the National University of Singapore (NUS), and also with leading researchers in the field of crustacean evolutionary biology at the mid-year meeting of The Crustacean Society (TCS). The researcher will examine crabs housed in the collections at the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum (LKCNHM), and will collaborate with Prof. Ng and his research group to learn about the biology and taxonomy of the crabs. The results from this project will serve as a solid foundation for a larger research project that seeks to further understand one of the most important life-history transitions in biology. For her dissertation work, the researcher plans to explore the mechanisms underlying the marine-to-terrestrial transition exhibited by brachyuran land crabs by integrating taxonomy, phylogenetics, and next-generation sequencing technologies, but prior to undertaking this larger project, she will first construct a solid taxonomic and systematic understanding of the group. For EAPSI, the researcher will be trained in these topics under the guidance of the world?s leading authority in crab systematics, Prof. Peter Ng at the NUS. She will examine and collect DNA subsamples from the land crab specimens preserved at the LKCNHM, which houses one of the largest collection of preserved land crabs in the world. Additionally, she will present at the mid-year meeting of TCS and network with other carcinologists to form additional international collaborations and partnerships.This award under the East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes program supports summer research by a U.S. graduate student and is jointly funded by NSF and the National Research Foundation of Singapore.