Collaborative Research: Integrative Phylogenomics of Wing Repurposing, Vestigiality and Loss

昆虫已经成为地球上进化最成功的动物群体，部分原因是翅膀-它们最引人注目的适应。翅膀为昆虫提供了无数的优势（例如，在飞行，求爱，防御）超过他们的无翼亲属。尽管如此，有无数的例子表明，昆虫已经进化到失去了翅膀，或者已经减少到不能飞行的地步。蟑螂就是一个很好的例子，因为在它们2.5亿年的进化史中，它们似乎已经失去了几十次功能性的翅膀。这项研究将描述蟑螂翅膀的进化模式，目的是更好地理解拥有翅膀、失去翅膀或将翅膀重新用于新功能的价值。特别是，该项目将研究蟑螂中最专业的亚群-白蚁-及其最近的蟑螂亲戚的翅膀的修改。实现这些目标使我们了解塑造地球生物多样性的过程，人们如何保护这些过程，以及社会如何从中学习以更好地实现自己的目标（例如，技术的生物启发设计）。该项目将以一种将国际学生聚集在一起在美国和国外合作发展的方式进行。该笔拨款亦会资助一个导师工作坊，让计划参与者及本地学术界的其他成员受惠最大。该讲习班的目的是改进专业前和专业阶段的导师制办法，以产生更公平的学术成果。这项综合性的基因组研究将评估翅膀进化的宏观进化动力学。该研究将整合前翅基地的形态学研究，以及在系统发育框架上的翅膀存在/不存在/退化/机械脱落数据，该框架还旨在放置重要的流氓血统。由此产生的祖先状态重建将解决有关进化保护的机械翼损失，发展翼损失，恢复，退化，以及这些之间的相关性的假设。该产品将进一步允许有争议的化石的稳健放置，从而改善分歧日期的推断。总之，这项研究将有助于了解翅膀的进化，白蚁中真社会性之前的表型起源，以及蟑螂的进化模式。在知识部分的同时，这笔赠款将资助一个指导改进研讨会，以及其他更广泛的影响活动。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为是值得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的支持。

Insects have become the most evolutionarily successful group of animals on Earth due, in part, to wings – their most striking adaptation. Wings provide insects with a myriad of advantages (e.g., in flight, courtship, defense) over their non-winged relatives. Despite this, there are countless examples of insects that have evolved to have lost their wings, or have had them reduced to the point that they are not functional for flight. Cockroaches are a prime example of this, as it appears that they have lost functional wings dozens of times throughout their 250 million year evolutionary history. This research will describe cockroach wing evolution patterns, with the aim of better understanding the value of having wings, losing them, or repurposing them for new functions. In particular, this project will examine modifications of wings in the most specialized subgroup of cockroaches – termites – and their closest cockroach relatives. Achieving these aims teaches us about the processes that shape Earth’s biodiversity, how people might conserve those processes, and how societies can learn from them to better achieve their own aims (e.g., bioinspired design of technology). The project will be carried out in a manner that will bring together international students for collaborative development in the US and abroad. The grant will also fund a mentorship workshop to maximize the benefit to project participants and other members of the local academic community. The workshop will aim to improve mentorship approaches at the pre-professional and professional stage to generate more equitable academic outcomes. This integrated phylogenomic study will assess the macro-evolutionary dynamics of wing-evolution. The research will integrate morphological study of the forewing base, and data on wing presence/absence/vestigiality/mechanical-shedding over a phylogenetic framework that additionally aims to place important rogue lineages. The resulting ancestral state reconstruction will address hypotheses about the evolutionary conservation of mechanical wing-loss, developmental wing-loss, regain, vestigiality, and correlations among these. This product will further allow robust placement of controversial fossils and thus improve divergence date inferences. In all, this study will lend understanding to the evolution of wings, the origins of phenotypes preceding eusociality in termites, and evolutionary patterns among cockroaches. Concurrent to the intellectual component, this grant will fund a mentorship improvement workshop, and other broader impact activities.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.