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的一个重要知识空白。它还为分子遗传学、发育生物学和进化论方面的研究生和本科生培训提供了一个平台，并为来自当地社区的未被充分代表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，并进行为芝加哥大学高中生设计的正式的分子遗传学暑期培训计划。多细胞生物体经历复杂的发育过程，从受精卵开始，产生具有专门身体部位和器官的成人身体计划。比较基因组学时代最伟大的科学成就之一是发现，协调这一发育过程的许多基因和遗传路径在遥远的分类群体中广泛共享，包括果蝇(本次调查的主题)和我们自己的物种。从这一发现中，人们普遍认为，共享发育过程的关键调控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。这项研究挑战了这一假设，对果蝇进行了一系列精确的遗传学实验，涉及建立其前后节段身体计划所需的保守基因。对于三个基因中的每一个，双体、巨型和驼背，来自不同果蝇物种的蛋白质编码和非编码顺式调控序列将面临挑战，以取代它们在黑腹果蝇中的同源序列。将在胚胎基因表达、蛋白质表达、发育、生存能力和与基因的共同进化互动中寻找功能差异的证据-甚至跳过，这是一个共同的监管目标。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。

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.