Collaborative Research: Repeated Evolution of Color Vision in Jumping Spiders: An Integrated Approach to Understanding Diversification of Visual Systems and Signals

色觉在动物王国中反复进化，但它是如何以及为什么进化的仍然知之甚少。关于色觉的主要转变如何影响交流中使用的颜色信号的演变，例如雄性在追求雌性时使用的彩色显示器，我们知道的更少。这项拟议中的研究利用了一个独特的机会来更深入地了解这些方面：跳蛛科（Salticidae）蜘蛛家族中颜色视觉的反复进化。该研究计划将（1）解决有关跳蛛科物种关系的悬而未决的问题，（2）使用这种对物种关系的更好理解来阐明色觉的进化模式，（3）量化色觉变化的遗传和功能基础，（4）测试与色觉相关的觅食益处的关键假设，以及（5）研究色觉的差异是否导致在发信号期间颜色使用的可预测变化。这种联系已经被证明是难以捉摸的，在其他研究系统（如灵长类动物），但应该是广泛的兴趣。此外，研究团队将与科学媒体公司Day's Edge Productions和由辛辛那提博物馆中心领导的四家博物馆联盟合作，通过一系列短片，内容丰富的网站以及用于教室，社区规划和博物馆展览空间的教育活动组合，让更广泛的公众参与色彩和视觉科学。因此，这项综合研究计划解决了关于动物如何以及为什么看到颜色的关键未回答的问题，同时让公众参与其发现的过程和结果。拟议的研究将在许多不同的科学领域取得重大进展，并通过这些领域的整合对表型多样化提出新的见解。首先，这项研究将为理解跳蛛多样性提供关键的新的系统发育信息，包括解决深亚科关系和一些物种丰富的亚群的第一个系统发育。这些系统发育的结果将是广泛的效用研究salticid生物学和快速辐射的演变。其次，通过表征多个独立过渡到真实色觉的遗传基础，该研究将提供新的机会来了解色觉是否沿着从其他系统已知的共同途径沿着（例如，通过视蛋白复制）或遵循新的途径（例如，视网膜过滤器，如最近在一个跳蛛谱系中发现的）。第三，色觉在觅食效率中所起作用的调查将提供一个令人兴奋的前景，将色觉的差异与适应性联系起来。最后，通过将视觉功能的变化与视觉信号的多样性联系起来，这项研究可能会揭示感觉功能在生物多样性中的核心作用。综合这些多方面的研究将提供一个前所未有的视角，为什么色觉进化，以及它如何塑造动物的生物多样性。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过评估使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准的支持。

Color vision has evolved repeatedly across the animal kingdom, yet how and why it evolves remains poorly understood. Even less is known about how major transitions in color vision influence the evolution of color signals used in communication, such as the colorful displays that males use when courting females. The proposed research capitalizes on a unique opportunity to gain deeper understanding on these fronts: the repeated evolution of color vision in the spider family Salticidae, often called jumping spiders. The research program will (1) address outstanding questions about species relationships in the Salticidae, (2) use this improved understanding of species relationships to illuminate patterns of evolution in color vision, (3) quantify the genetic and functional bases of shifts in color vision, (4) test key hypotheses about the foraging benefits associated with color vision, and (5) investigate whether differences in color vision result in predictable changes to color use during signaling. Such connections have proven to be elusive in other well-studied systems (e.g. primates), but should be of widespread interest. In addition, the research team will partner with the science-media company Day's Edge Productions and a coalition of four museums led by the Cincinnati Museum Center to engage the broader public in the science of color and vision through a series of short films, a content-rich website, and a portfolio of educational activities for use in classrooms, community programming, and museum exhibit spaces. This integrated research program thus addresses key unanswered questions about how and why animals see color, while at the same time engaging the public in the process and outcomes of its discoveries.The proposed research will provide significant advances across a number of distinct scientific fields, and novel insights into phenotypic diversification through integration across these fields. First, the research will provide critical new phylogenetic information for understanding salticid diversity, including resolution of deep subfamily relationships and the first phylogenies for a number of species-rich sub-groups. These phylogenetic outcomes will be of broad utility to researchers studying salticid biology and the evolution of rapid radiations. Second, by characterizing the genetic basis of multiple independent transitions to true color vision, the research will provide new opportunities to understand whether color vision evolves along common pathways known from other systems (e.g., through opsin duplication) or has followed novel routes (e.g., retinal filters, as discovered recently in one salticid lineage). Third, investigations of the role that color vision plays in foraging efficiency will offer the exciting prospect of connecting differences in color vision to fitness. Finally, by connecting variation in visual function to diversity in visual signaling, this research may reveal a central role for sensory function in biodiversification. Synthesis of these multiple lines of research will offer an unprecedented view of why color vision evolves and how it shapes animal biodiversity.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.