Collaborative Research: Rates of lineage, phenotypic, and genomic diversification in replicated radiations of murine rodents

生命的多样性在很大程度上是通过适应性辐射的过程产生的。当一个群体迅速分化成许多物种以填补各种生态角色时，就会发生适应性辐射。虽然适应性辐射是生命进化中的一个共同主题，但它的许多特征却鲜为人知。这个项目试图更好地理解适应性辐射是如何进行的。该项目将研究一组包含600多个物种的啮齿动物在进化历史中基因、形态和物种多样性的多样化速度。这项研究将确定随着物种的多样化，基因、形态和物种的变化是如何相关的。重要的是，研究中的群体包括普通的实验室小鼠和大鼠，这两个物种在医学和基础研究中充当科学模型。这项研究将把这些模式生物置于进化的背景下，使科学家能够更好地了解它们的基因和其他特征是如何进化的。这样的理解提供了对具有医学意义的基因和特征的新见解。研究人员组织的科学会议将汇集从分子生物学和医学等不同角度研究小鼠和大鼠的科学家，分享见解并产生新的研究问题。除了对基础科学和医学的广泛影响外，参与的自然历史博物馆的公共宣传和教育活动将利用这项研究的结果向K-12学生教授进化生物学原理，并提高公众对科学的理解。该项目在严格的系统发生学框架下将比较基因组学与数量形态学相结合，阐明哺乳动物中物种最丰富的适应辐射的谱系、表型和基因的多样性动态。在过去的1400万年里，大鼠和小鼠(小鼠亚科，634个现存物种)的特殊物种和生态形态多样性是通过重复的适应性辐射产生的，主要是在印度-澳大利亚不同的生物地理单元。这项研究将对主要哺乳动物模式生物的基因组资源进行扩展，通过对大量系统发育分散的物种的完整外显子组进行测序，涵盖小鼠啮齿动物的多样性。此外，该项目还将为同一物种的头骨和后颅骨生成高分辨率的3D形态测量模型。该项目将结合这些不同的数据层，以：评估小鼠亚科物种水平的系统发育；识别和确定生物地理和生态转变的日期；估计整个系统发展过程中多样化比率的转变；估计相对于转变(生物地理和生态)和谱系多样化比率转变的表型和分子进化速度；测试表型和分子进化速度之间的相关性；以及量化形态和分子收敛。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Much of the diversity of life has arisen through the process of adaptive radiation. Adaptive radiation occurs when a group rapidly diversifies into many species to fill a variety of ecological roles. While adaptive radiation is a common theme in the evolution of life, many of its features are poorly understood. This project seeks to better understand how adaptive radiation proceeds. The project will examine the rate of diversification in genes, morphology and species diversity over the evolutionary history of a group of rodents containing more than 600 species. The study will determine how changes in genes, morphology and species are correlated as the species diversified. Importantly, the group under study contains the common lab mouse and rat, two species that serve as scientific models in medical and basic research. This study will place these model organisms in an evolutionary context that will allow scientists to better understand how their genes and other characteristics have evolved. Such understanding provides new insight into genes and characteristics of medical significance. Scientific meetings organized by the researchers will bring together scientists who study mice and rats from different perspectives, including molecular biology and medicine, to share insight and generate new research questions. In addition to the broader impacts on basic science and medicine, public outreach and education events at participating natural history museums will use the results of this research to teach principles of evolutionary biology to K-12 students and improve public understanding of science.This project integrates comparative genomics with quantitative morphology in a rigorous phylogenetic framework to illuminate the dynamics of diversification in lineages, phenotypes, and genes across the most species-rich adaptive radiation in mammals. The exceptional species and ecomorphological diversity in rats and mice (subfamily Murinae, 634 living species) arose over the last 14 million years through replicate adaptive radiations, primarily in the distinct biogeographic units of Indo-Australia. This research will expand on the genomic resources from the leading mammalian model organisms to encompass the diversity of murine rodents by sequencing whole exomes from a large, phylogenetically dispersed set of species. In addition, the project will generate high-resolution, 3D morphometric models of cranial and post-cranial skeletons from the same species. The project will combine these distinct data layers to: estimate a species-level phylogeny of the Murinae; identify and date biogeographic and ecological transitions; estimate diversification rate shifts across the phylogeny; estimate rates of phenotypic and molecular evolution relative to transitions (biogeographic and ecological) and shifts in lineage diversification rate; test for correlations between the tempos of phenotypic and molecular evolution; and, quantify morphological and molecular convergence.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.