The molecular basis of morphological evolution

形态进化的分子基础

• 批准号: 6359045
• 负责人: DAVID L STERN
• 金额: $ 26.82万
• 依托单位: PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2001
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2001-08-01 至 2006-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/6359045
• 关键词: DNA; DNA footprinting; Drosophilidae; binding sites; biochemical evolution; developmental genetics; functional /structural genomics; gene expression; genetic mapping; genetic polymorphism; genetic regulatory element; genetic strain; in situ hybridization; molecular genetics; morphology; natural selections; nucleic acid sequence; phenotype; polymerase chain reaction; regulatory gene; species difference; systematic biology; transcription factor

Our long term goal is to understand how natural genetic variation generates morphological variation. We pursue this goal by combining approaches from developmental genetics and evolutionary biology. Recent work from our lab and others has demonstrated that alterations in gene regulation are likely to be the predominant mode of molecular change underlying morphological evolution. However, we currently have a limited understanding of the structure and function of the genomic regions that regulate gene expression. In addition, several studies have demonstrated that regulatory regions can evolve dramatically different DNA sequences while retaining conserved function. In contrast to studies of genes with conserved patterns of gene expression, almost nothing is known at the molecular level about the alterations in gene function that lead to morphological evolution. Our work is focused on identifying and characterising the DNA changes that are responsible for morphological evolution between closely related species. We have already identified some of the genes that have evolved between closely related Drosophila species to alter the patterning of fine hairs (trichomes) on the larvae and adult. We will perform a detailed investigation of the evolution of the regulatory regions of these genes by combining functional studies and phylogenetic comparisons of DNA sequence variation. Although gene regulatory regions encode much of the logic of development, it is not yet possible to read this logic directly from genomic data. An evolutionary approach to understanding the function of these gene regions is likely to provide important insights into the logic of gene regulatory regions and assist in the interpretation of comparative genomics data.

我们的长期目标是了解自然遗传变异是如何产生形态变异的。我们通过结合发育遗传学和进化生物学的方法来追求这一目标。我们实验室和其他实验室最近的工作表明，基因调控的变化很可能是形态进化背后的分子变化的主要模式。然而，我们目前对调控基因表达的基因组区域的结构和功能了解有限。此外，一些研究表明，调节区可以进化出截然不同的DNA序列，同时保持保守的功能。与对基因表达模式保守的基因的研究相比，在分子水平上对导致形态进化的基因功能变化几乎一无所知。我们的工作集中在识别和表征DNA变化，这些变化是导致密切相关物种之间形态进化的原因。我们已经确定了一些在近缘关系密切的果蝇物种之间进化的基因，这些基因可以改变幼虫和成虫的细毛(毛状体)图案。我们将结合功能研究和DNA序列变异的系统发育比较，对这些基因的调节区的进化进行详细的研究。尽管基因调节区编码了许多发育逻辑，但还不可能直接从基因组数据中读取这一逻辑。用进化的方法来理解这些基因区域的功能可能会为基因调控区域的逻辑提供重要的见解，并有助于解释比较基因组学数据。