CAREER: Integrating Genomic, Paleoclimatic, and Morphological Approaches to Unravel the Evolutionary History of Fossil and Extant Marine Fishes Over Time

该奖项的全部或部分资金来自《2021年美国救援计划法案》(公法117-2)。要了解地球上生命的进化史，需要对生物和化石物种进行全面的记录。例如，我们对古代事件对形态多样性的影响的理解受到化石、古气候数据层和对基因组大小随时间演变的理解的限制。为了解决这一知识差距，该项目将使用现存的和化石的河豚、箱鱼、海洋太阳鱼和同类(四齿目)来分析形态进化，以及它与古气候、身体大小和基因组大小变化的联系。通过在表型和分子水平上研究古代气候事件、形态进化速度和趋同之间的复杂相互作用，这个项目将产生一个新的关于这一组多样性的节奏和模式的比较综合，并更广泛地促进我们对脊椎动物多样性的理解。综合教育计划通过培训下一代进化生物学家来扩大这项研究的影响。教育活动包括在俄克拉荷马大学和波多黎各大学举办讲习班，创建博物馆展览，以及对本科生和研究生以及博士后研究人员进行研究培训。该项目以形态多样性的综合宏观进化调查为中心，使用全基因组测序数据，并结合最先进的形态、古气候和古生物学数据研究方法，以阐明主要是海鱼分支(四齿目)表型多样化的驱动因素。该项目将解决三个主要问题：(I)古代气候事件是否与形态进化速度的增加有关？(Ii)基因组大小的进化是否与更高的形态和谱系多样性的比率相关？(Iii)个体大小的表型趋同是否与分子趋同的模式相关？研究结果将为理解其他海洋种群如何进化和适应突然的气候变化确立新的研究方向。它们还将加强我们在宏观进化背景下使用全基因组测序和形态数据来理解表型和基因可预测性之间的关系，并通过基于各种丰富层数据的新颖比较分析创造探索进化的新方法。这项提议的教育计划包括一门新的鱼类学课程，编程夏季研讨会，以及各种博物馆展览和外展活动，将鱼类作为了解形态进化的一个极好的系统。该奖项反映了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 award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). Understanding the evolutionary history of life on earth requires comprehensive documentation of both living and fossil species. For example, our understanding of the effects of ancient events on morphological diversity is stymied by the limited inclusion of fossils, paleoclimatic data layers, and understanding of genome size evolution over time. To address this knowledge gap, this project will analyze morphological evolution using extant and fossil pufferfishes, boxfishes, ocean sunfishes, and allies (Order Tetraodontiformes), as well as its links to changes in paleoclimate, body size, and genome size. By investigating the complex interplay between ancient climatic events, rates of morphological evolution, and convergence at the phenotypic and molecular levels, this project will yield a new comparative synthesis of the tempo and mode of diversification in this group and, more generally, advance our understanding of vertebrate diversification. An integrated education plan extends the impact of this research by training the next generation of evolutionary biologists. Educational activities include workshops at the University of Oklahoma and the University of Puerto Rico, the creation of museum exhibitions, and research training for undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. This project centers on an integrative macroevolutionary investigation of morphological diversity using whole-genome sequencing data coupled with state-of-the-art approaches for the study of morphological, paleoclimatic, and paleontological data to elucidate the drivers of phenotypic diversification in a mostly marine fish clade (tetraodontiforms). The project will address three main questions: (i) Are ancient climatic events associated with an increase in rates of morphological evolution? (ii) Is genome size evolution correlated with higher rates of morphological and lineage diversification? (iii) Is phenotypic convergence in body size correlated with patterns of molecular convergence? Results will establish new research directions for understanding how other marine groups have evolved and adapted to abrupt climatic changes. They will also enhance our understanding of the relationships between phenotypic and genotypic predictability using whole-genome sequencing and morphological data in a macroevolutionary context, and create new ways of exploring evolution through novel comparative analyses based on a variety of rich layers of data. The educational plan of this proposal includes a new ichthyology course, coding summer workshops, and a variety of museum exhibitions and outreach activities, presenting fishes as an excellent system to understand morphological evolution.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.