MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO BIOACOUSTICS: Integrating phylogenomics, biophysics, and functional genomics to unravel the evolution of hearing and sin

声音交流在动物王国中很普遍。几十年来，对声音交流动物的研究共同揭示了信号发送者和接收器之间复杂的相互作用和共同进化，以及听觉和声音产生的形态结构的多样性及其复杂的神经生理基础。然而，目前生物声学领域的方法往往局限于使用单一模式生物的声学通信的特定方面，因此很难得出关于歌唱和听力如何随着时间的推移而形成的一般结论。该项目将采用明确的进化分支为基础的方法，利用最多样化的声音交流动物群体Ensifera的综合系统发育，辅以成像、生物物理学和功能基因组学的尖端技术，在比较框架中评估听觉和歌唱机制。提出的系统基因组学分析的雄心勃勃的范围将牢固地建立主要ensiferan谱系之间和内部的进化关系，这种关系几十年来一直难以捉摸。该项目将使用x射线微纳米计算机断层扫描、微扫描激光多普勒振动仪、RNA-seq和目标捕获测序技术，生成前所未有的详细形态学、生物物理和遗传数据。这个项目的结果将回答一些悬而未决的问题，如声音通信何时起源以及它丢失的频率，谱系如何独立地进化出不同的听觉和信号机制，这些机制的物理、神经和遗传基础是什么，以及信号多样性如何与多样化和物种形成产生因果关系。这些发现将共同揭示声通信进化的一般见解。

Acoustic communication is widespread across the animal kingdom. For decades, studies of acoustically communicating animals have collectively revealed the intricate interplay and co-evolution between signal sender and receiver, as well as the diversity of morphological structures involved in hearing and sound production and their complex neurophysiological underpinnings. However, the current approach in the field of bioacoustics is often narrowly focused on a particular aspect of acoustic communication using single model organisms, making it challenging to draw a general conclusion about how singing and hearing have been shaped through time. This project will take an explicitly clade-based approach using a comprehensive dated phylogeny of Ensifera, the most diverse group of acoustically communicating animals, complemented with cutting-edge techniques in imaging, biophysics, and functional genomics to evaluate mechanisms of hearing and singing in a comparative framework. The ambitious scope of the proposed phylogenomic analysis will firmly establish evolutionary relationships among and within the major ensiferan lineages, which have remained elusive for many decades. The project will generate an unprecedented amount of detailed morphological, biophysical, and genetic data using X-ray micro and nano computed tomography, microscanning laser Doppler vibrometry, RNA-seq, and target capture sequencing. The results from this project will answer outstanding questions about when acoustic communication originated and how often it has been lost, how lineages independently evolved different mechanisms of hearing and signalling, what the physical, neural and genetic bases of these are, and how signal diversity is causally related to diversification and speciation. These findings will collectively reveal general insights about the evolution of acoustic communication.