EAGER: Investigating the Evolutionary and Environmental Bases of Twinning in Human Populations

EAGER：调查人类双胞胎的进化和环境基础

• 批准号: 1720091
• 负责人: Lorena Madrigal
• 金额: $ 0.64万
• 依托单位: University of South Florida
• 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: 2017-02-15 至 2019-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1720091&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAGER; Investigating; Evolutionary; Environmental; Bases

In this EAGER project, the investigators will study the occurrence of twins in human populations, with a focus on high twinning rates. Fraternal twinning rates vary across populations, and this variation and the potential adaptive advantages of having twins are not fully understood. Previous research by these investigators and others suggest that both genetic and environmental factors are involved. This project will collect initial information on the scale and timing of twinning in one population with an extremely high twinning rate, which will provide a foundation for subsequent research projects to understand the cultural, biological, evolutionary, and environmental contexts of multiple births in modern humans. The project also supports international research collaborations and may lead to findings that inform fertility research. Spontaneous dizygotic (DZ) twinning occurs with the release and fertilization of two oocytes. A genetic component to dizygotic twinning has long been recognized, potentially including genes related to follicle cohort size and multiple implantation, but no clear inheritance pattern has been identified. Environmental factors such as smoking may also influence twinning rates. The investigators will collect information on twin occurrence in a village in southern India, to reconstruct when the village started to have twin frequencies that are out of the normal range of other Indian populations, and to begin to explore the potential effects of microevolutionary processes and environmental chemical exposure.

在这个 EAGER 项目中，研究人员将研究人类中双胞胎的发生情况，重点关注高双胞胎率。异卵双胞胎率因人群而异，这种差异以及双胞胎的潜在适应性优势尚未完全了解。这些研究人员和其他人之前的研究表明，遗传和环境因素都参与其中。该项目将收集关于双胞胎发生率极高的人群的双胞胎规模和时间的初步信息，这将为后续研究项目奠定基础，以了解现代人类多胞胎的文化、生物、进化和环境背景。该项目还支持国际研究合作，并可能产生为生育研究提供信息的发现。 自发双卵双生 (DZ) 伴随着两个卵母细胞的释放和受精而发生。人们早已认识到异卵双胞胎的遗传因素，可能包括与卵泡群体大小和多次植入相关的基因，但尚未确定明确的遗传模式。吸烟等环境因素也可能影响双胞胎率。研究人员将收集印度南部一个村庄双胞胎发生的信息，重建该村庄何时开始出现超出其他印度人口正常范围的双胞胎频率，并开始探索微进化过程和环境化学物质暴露的潜在影响。