Dissecting the functional basis of butterfly-plant coevolution

项目摘要/摘要 宿主和寄生虫之间的对抗无处不在。一种强大的、互惠的自然选择，由 宿主和寄生虫的相互作用(共同进化)可以对双方的生物学产生普遍影响。因为 与寄生虫的共同进化影响到人类健康和疾病的许多方面，对 共同进化过程是生物医学的当务之急。 宿主和寄生虫的共同进化通常在分子水平上进行。从功能上剖析宿主与寄生虫的相互作用 因此，需要有能力从基因上操纵双方，而这在人类是不可能的 系统。为了填补这一空白，研究人员必须将目光投向生命之树的其他地方。植物及其食草性昆虫 是自然界中最常见的宿主-寄生虫系统，提供了实验上易于处理的模型来阐明 共同进化的一般特征。 这项拟议的工作将确定调节白蝴蝶之间共同进化的基因和蛋白质。 (Pieridae：Pierinae)和它们的油菜目寄主植物(包括拟南芥)。以前在这方面的工作 经典的共同进化系统揭示了植物对草食性抗性的遗传和功能基础 但从寄生虫的角度来看，缺乏相互补充的理解。AIM 1将聘用 祖先蛋白质重建和实验生物化学以确定使 新的共同进化的相互作用。AIM 2将使用CRISPR/Cas9基因组编辑从功能上剖析 蝴蝶基因介导了与拟南芥植物的共同进化，这是由最近的一项GWA发现的 耐人寻味的候选基因。最后，目标3将使用种群基因组和比较基因组学方法来 描述不同的共同进化模式如何决定决定寄生虫的遗传变异的命运 成功。这项工作将产生一个经过功能验证的、实验上易于处理的宿主-寄生虫模型 共同进化。 这些项目将共同为进化基因组学领域的博士后培训做出贡献， 功能遗传学和实验生物化学。通过这次培训获得了新的技能和独立性 将促进向进化基因组学研究生涯的过渡。芝加哥大学是一所 由于大学在生物科学方面的实力，从事这项工作的特殊环境，广阔 资源，以及共同赞助者和当地合作者的特殊专长。

Project Summary / Abstract Antagonism between hosts and parasites is ubiquitous. The strong, reciprocal natural selection that results from host-parasite interactions (coevolution) can have pervasive effects on the biology of both partners. Because coevolution with parasites affects many facets of human health and disease, a robust understanding of the coevolutionary process is a biomedical imperative. Host-parasite coevolution often plays out at the molecular level. Functionally dissecting host-parasite interactions therefore requires the capacity to genetically manipulate both partners, something that is not possible in human systems. To fill this gap, researchers must look elsewhere on the tree of life. Plants and their insect herbivores are the most common host-parasite systems in nature, providing experimentally tractable models to illuminate general features of coevolution. The proposed work will identify the genes and proteins that mediate coevolution between white butterflies (Pieridae: Pierinae) and their Brassicales host plants (including Arabidopsis thaliana). Previous work on this classic coevolutionary system has uncovered the genetic and functional bases of plant resistance to herbivorous insects, but a complementary understanding from the parasite’s perspective is lacking. Aim 1 will employ ancestral protein reconstruction and experimental biochemistry to identify the mutational events that enable novel coevolutionary interactions. Aim 2 will use CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing to functionally dissect the butterfly genes mediating coevolution with Arabidopsis plants, enabled by a recent GWAS that identified intriguing candidate loci. Finally, Aim 3 will use population genomic and comparative genomic methods to characterize how alternative modes of coevolution shape the fate of genetic variants that determine parasite success. This work will result in a functionally validated, experimentally tractable model of host-parasite coevolution. Together, these projects will contribute to postdoctoral training at the interface of evolutionary genomics, functional genetics, and experimental biochemistry. New skills and independence gained through this training will facilitate the transition to a research career in evolutionary genomics. The University of Chicago is an exceptional setting to pursue this work due to the University’s strength across the biological sciences, expansive resources, and the particular expertise of co-sponsors and local collaborators.