New approaches for the modelling of speciation

描述(由申请人提供)：这个项目的总体目标是通过研究描述种群、物种和支系的各种数学模型的动态(和静态)行为，更好地了解生物进化、物种形成和多样性。利用分析方法和广泛的数值模拟相结合的方法，将研究一些考虑到自然种群中各种因素的进化多样性的数学模型。将使用标准的种群遗传学方法和最近在理论进化生物学、数学和物理学中开发的新方法。这个项目有三个相互关联的具体目标。1.建立物种形成一般理论的数学基础，发展适应辐射的数学理论，并制定和研究将不同空间和时间尺度(从物种形成到适应辐射再到宏观进化模式)的进化过程联系起来的数学模型。2.通过更好地理解理论结果对特定生物体群体中物种形成的影响，探索物种形成的动态模型如何指导利用新出现的比较基因组数据发展统计方法和假设，以及审查关于分子系统学和空间范围分布的数据如何可以用来推断物种形成和分支多样化的历史，在理论和经验数据之间建立更紧密的联系。3.利用显式遗传和空间模型研究共同进化动力学，分析在泛生态和空间结构系统中，依赖于许多基因座和性状的种内和种间相互作用是如何影响种群的进化动力学的。本文提出的研究可能会提高我们对生物多样性起源和维持机制的理解，并可能对理解和控制影响人类健康的宿主-病原体相互作用的动力学具有重要意义。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overall aim of this project is to better understand biological evolution, speciation, and diversification through a study of the dynamic (and static) behavior of various mathematical models describing populations, species and clades. Using a combination of analytical methods and extensive numerical simulations, a number of mathematical models of evolutionary diversification taking into account various factors operating in natural populations will be studied. Both standard population genetics approaches and novel methods recently developed in theoretical evolutionary biology, mathematics, and physics will be used. This project has 3 interrelated specific aims. 1. Build mathematical foundations of a general theory of speciation, develop a mathematical theory of adaptive radiations, and formulate and study mathematical models linking evolutionary processes at different spatial and temporal scales (from speciation to adaptive radiation to macro evolutionary patters). 2. Establish closer connections between theory and empirical data through a better understanding of the implications of theoretical results for speciation in specific groups of organisms, exploration of how dynamical models of speciation can guide the development of statistical methods and hypotheses utilizing emerging comparative genomic data, and examination of how the data on molecular phylogenies and spatial range distributions can be used to infer the history of speciation and clade diversification. 3. Study the coevolutionary dynamics using explicit genetic and spatial models to analyze how antagonistic and mutualistic within- and between-species interactions depending on many loci and traits affect the evolutionary dynamics of populations in panmictic and spatially-structured systems. The studies proposed here may improve our understanding of the mechanisms responsible for the origin and maintenance of biodiversity and may be important for understanding and controlling the dynamics of host-pathogen interactions affecting human health.