Collaborative research: Species delimitation, hybridization and the origin of parthenogenesis in Whiptail lizards (Aspidoscelis).

物种是生物多样性的基本单位。科学家必须能够准确地识别物种之间的界限，以及它们之间的关系，以了解基本的生物过程和生物多样性的全球模式。一些生物的生物学特性使得识别物种具有挑战性。特别是，当物种在自然界中杂交时，它掩盖了科学家通常用来识别它们的形态和遗传变异的模式。在某些情况下，杂交也与独特和有趣的生物现象有关，如生殖模式，染色体数量或进化适应的变化。在这个项目中，研究小组将开发出准确识别一组蜥蜴中物种的方法，其中杂交很常见，物种识别一直具有挑战性：Aspidoscelis属的北美和中美洲鞭尾蜥蜴。除了改进识别物种的方法外，这项研究还将增加对野生杂交效果的理解，以及这组蜥蜴繁殖模式的进化。研究活动还将提供一个多元化的科学家和学生团队的培训，其中许多人来自典型的代表性不足的科学，在夏威夷和加州。鞭尾已迅速多样化，并经历了大量的渐渗杂交，这使他们成为理想的评估系统发育和种群遗传方法解开杂交，谱系排序，和系统错误。雌雄异体物种之间的杂交也反复导致孤雌生殖谱系的形成，其频率基本上是该组所独有的。研究小组将利用基因组和形态学数据来解开渐渗杂交和谱系分选对鞭尾蜥蜴所有谱系之间分歧模式的影响，并利用这些结果来推断该属单性生殖的起源。通过研究Whiptails中杂交和渐渗的地理，时间和基因组动态，该项目将更好地了解基因流如何影响自然界的物种形成过程，以及整个进化过程。全面解决鞭尾鱼的物种形成模式也将揭示与生殖模式频繁变化相关的过程，这使得它们在脊椎动物中独一无二，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识产权进行评估来支持。优点和更广泛的影响审查标准。

Species are the basic unit of biological diversity. Scientists must be able to accurately recognize the boundaries between species, and the relationships among them, to understand fundamental biological processes and global patterns of biological diversity. The biology of some organisms makes recognizing species challenging. In particular, when species hybridize in nature it obscures the patterns of morphological and genetic variation that scientists usually use to recognize them. In some cases, hybridization is also associated with unique and interesting biological phenomena, such as changes in reproductive modes, chromosome number, or evolutionary adaptation. In this project, the research team will develop ways to accurately recognize species in a group of lizards where hybridization is common and species identification has been challenging: The North and Central American Whiptail lizards of the genus Aspidoscelis. In addition to improving methods for recognizing species, this research will increase the understanding of the effects of hybridization in the wild, as well as the evolution of reproductive modes in this group of lizards. The research activities will also provide training for a diverse team of scientists and students, many from groups typically underrepresented in science, in Hawaii and California.Whiptails have diversified rapidly and experienced a large amount of introgressive hybridization, which makes them ideal for evaluating phylogenetic and population genetic methods for disentangling hybridization, lineage sorting, and systematic error. Hybridization between gonochoristic species has also repeatedly led to the formation of parthenogenetic lineages at a frequency that is essentially unique to this group. The research team will use genomic and morphological data to disentangle the effects of introgressive hybridization and lineage sorting on the patterns of divergence between all lineages of the Whiptail lizards, and use these results to infer the origins of parthenogenesis across the genus. By examining the geographic, temporal, and genomic dynamics of hybridization and introgression in Whiptails, the project will provide a better understanding of how gene flow impacts the speciation process in nature, and across evolutionary time. Comprehensively resolving patterns of speciation among Whiptails will also shed light on the processes associated with the frequent changes in reproductive mode that make them unique among vertebrates, and contribute to their ability to serve as a model system for other areas of inquiry across the life and biomedical sciences.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.