DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Functional Tests of Hox Gene Evolution and the Pipefish Elongated Body Plan

论文研究：Hox 基因进化和海龙身体延长计划的功能测试

• 批准号: 1701854
• 负责人: William Cresko
• 金额: $ 1.91万
• 依托单位: University of Oregon Eugene
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-06-01 至 2019-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1701854&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DISSERTATION; RESEARCH; Functional; Tests; Hox

This research will experimentally manipulate gene expression to understand how elongate fishes, such as pipefish, get their shape. Fishes, like other vertebrates, share a conserved set of genes that regulate development. Yet from this conserved set, fishes come in an amazing diversity of shapes. Pipefish are part of a group of nearly 300 species that also includes seahorses, pipehorses, and seadragons, that have remarkably diverse traits such as long snouts, tube-like bodies, and males that become pregnant. These fishes provide a unique opportunity to study trait evolution because of the breadth of characters absent in other fish lineages and the existence of powerful experimental tools based on the pipefish genomic. This project will involve the research training of an undergraduate from groups underrepresented in science. It will also contribute to public outreach in collaboration with The Museum of Natural and Cultural History at the University of Oregon.This project will connect observed genetic and genomic changes with the morphological changes to the body plan in the Gulf pipefish (Syngnathus scovelli). This research focuses on a small subset of Hox transcription factors and their surrounding genomic content that are important in early cranial and axial skeleton development. Based on analysis of the Gulf pipefish genome, a few key Hox genes and nearby regulatory elements have been lost through the course of evolution in the Gulf pipefish lineage. Using advanced genomic and gene editing techniques, the researchers will perform functional tests in related teleost fish, the threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) and zebrafish (Danio rerio), to examine the morphological impact of the loss of genes and genomic content on the fish body plan. Possible effects of these losses on the evolution of the syngnathid body plan will be determined by creating mutations in these orthologous genes using the CRISPR technique in zebrafish and threespine stickleback fish models. This work will advance our understanding of how novel characters evolve in the context of the deeply conserved developmental toolkit.

这项研究将在实验中操纵基因表达，以了解诸如Pipefish之类的细长鱼的形状。与其他脊椎动物一样，鱼类共享一组调节发育的基因。然而，从这个保守的场景中，鱼类具有惊人的形状。 Pipefish是一组近300种的一部分，其中还包括海马，管式马匹和Seadragons，它们具有多种多样的特征，例如长长的鼻子，管状的身体和雄性。这些鱼类提供了一个独特的机会来研究特质进化，因为其他鱼类谱系中缺乏字符的广度以及基于PipeFish基因组的强大实验工具的存在。该项目将涉及科学领域人数不足的小组的本科生的研究培训。它还将与俄勒冈大学的自然和文化史博物馆合作，为公众推广。该项目将把观察到的遗传和基因组变化与墨西哥湾pipefish（Syngnathus scovelli）的身体计划联系起来。这项研究的重点是一小部分HOX转录因子及其周围基因组含量，这些因子在早期颅骨和轴向骨骼发育中很重要。基于对海湾烟草基因组的分析，在海湾烟草谱系的进化过程中，丢失了一些关键的HOX基因和附近的调节元素。研究人员将使用先进的基因组和基因编辑技术进行功能测试，对相关的定蛋白鱼类，三杆粘性（Gasterosteus aculeatus）和斑马鱼（Danio rerio）进行研究，以检查基因丢失和鱼类身体基因含量的形态影响。这些损失对Syngnathid身体计划进化的可能影响将通过在这些直系同源基因中使用斑马鱼和三个粘​​性鱼类模型中的CRISPR技术来确定。这项工作将促进我们对新颖角色如何在深厚保守的发展工具包的背景下发展的理解。