Evolutionary Processes in Conserved Developmental Pathways

这项研究填补了关于生物在进化过程中分化形成不同物种的遗传机制知识的重要空白。它还为分子遗传学、发育生物学和进化方面的研究生和本科生提供了一个培训平台，并为来自当地社区的代表性不足的高中生提供了一个令人兴奋的机会，让他们参与这项研究，并参加为在芝加哥大学授课的高中生设计的正式的分子遗传学暑期培训项目。多细胞生物经历了复杂的发育过程，从一个受精卵开始，到产生具有专门身体部位和器官的成年身体。比较基因组学时代最伟大的科学成就之一是发现了许多基因和遗传途径，这些基因和遗传途径协调了这一发育过程，这些基因和遗传途径在远亲的分类群体中广泛共享，包括果蝇（本次研究的主题）和我们自己的物种。根据这一发现，人们普遍认为，共同发育过程的关键调节因子将在功能上保守，不会导致伴随物种形成和适应性变化的进化分歧。这项研究通过对果蝇（Drosophila melanogaster）进行一系列精确的基因实验，挑战了这一假设，涉及到建立其前后分节身体计划所需的保守基因。对于Bicoid、giant和hunchback这三个基因，来自不同蝇种的蛋白质编码和非编码顺式调控序列将被挑战取代黑腹果蝇的同源对应序列。功能差异的证据将在胚胎基因表达、蛋白质表达、发育、生存能力以及与基因甚至跳过的共同进化相互作用中寻找，这是一个共同的调控目标。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This research fills an important gap in knowledge about the genetic mechanisms by which organisms diverge over evolutionary time to form distinct species. It also provides a platform for graduate and undergraduate training in molecular genetics, developmental biology and evolution, and an exciting opportunity for under-represented high school students from the local community to participate in this research and to undertake a formal in-residence summer training program in molecular genetics designed for high school students taught at the University of Chicago. Multicellular organisms undergo complex development processes beginning with a fertilized egg to produce the adult body plan with specialized body parts and organs. One of the great scientific achievements of the comparative genomics era is the discovery that many of the genes and genetic pathways that orchestrate this developmental process are widely shared across distantly related taxonomic groups, spanning fruit flies (the subject of this investigation) and our own species. From this discovery, it is widely assumed that the crucial regulators of shared developmental processes will be functionally conserved and will not contribute to the evolutionary divergence that accompanies speciation and adaptive change. This research challenges this assumption with a set of precise genetic experiments in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, involving conserved genes required for establishing its anterior-posterior segmented body plan. For each of three genes, Bicoid, giant, and hunchback, protein coding and noncoding cis-regulatory sequences from different fly species will be challenged to replace their orthologous counterparts in Drosophila melanogaster. Evidence of functional divergence will be sought in embryonic gene expression, protein expression, development, viability, and co-evolutionary interaction with the gene even-skipped, a shared regulatory target.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.