The molecular basis of morphological evolution

形态进化的分子基础

基本信息

批准号：
7252832
负责人：
DAVID L STERN
金额：
$ 8.95万
依托单位：
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
财政年份：
2001
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2001-08-01 至 2007-03-31
项目状态：
已结题

项目摘要

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如何产生形态变异。我们通过结合发展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的最新工作表明，基因调节的改变可能是形态进化的基础分子变化的主要模式。但是，我们目前对调节基因表达的基因组区域的结构和功能有限。此外，几项研究表明，调节区域可以在保留保守功能的同时进化出明显不同的DNA序列。与对基因表达的保守基因的研究相反，几乎在分子水平上几乎没有任何关于导致形态进化的基因功能改变的知识。我们的工作专注于识别和表征导致密切相关物种之间形态演变的DNA变化。我们已经确定了一些在密切相关的果蝇之间进化的基因，以改变幼虫和成人上细头发（毛状体）的模式。我们将通过结合功能研究和DNA序列变异的系统发育比较来详细研究这些基因调节区域的演变。尽管基因调节区域编码了发展的大部分逻辑，但仍无法直接从基因组数据中读取此逻辑。一种了解这些基因区域功能的进化方法可能会提供对基因调节区域逻辑的重要见解，并有助于解释比较基因组学数据。