Dissecting the functional basis of butterfly-plant coevolution

项目概要/摘要 宿主和寄生虫之间的拮抗作用是普遍存在的。强大的，互惠的自然选择， 宿主-寄生虫相互作用（共同进化）可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着人类健康和疾病的许多方面， 共同进化过程是生物医学的必要条件。 宿主-寄生虫的共同进化通常在分子水平上进行。功能解剖宿主-寄生虫相互作用 因此，需要有能力对双方进行基因操纵，这在人类中是不可能的。 系统.为了填补这一空白，研究人员必须在生命之树的其他地方寻找。植物及其食草昆虫 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。 这项拟议中的工作将确定介导白色蝴蝶之间共同进化的基因和蛋白质 （粉蝶科：粉蝶亚科）和它们的寄生植物（包括拟南芥）。以前在这方面的工作 经典的协同进化系统已经揭示了植物抗食草性的遗传和功能基础， 昆虫，但从寄生虫的角度补充了解是缺乏的。目标1将采用 祖先蛋白质重建和实验生物化学，以确定突变事件，使 新的共同进化互动。Aim 2将使用CRISPR/Cas9基因组编辑来功能性地剖析 蝴蝶基因介导的协同进化与拟南芥植物，使最近的GWAS，确定 有趣的候选基因座。最后，目标3将使用群体基因组学和比较基因组学方法， 描述共同进化的替代模式如何塑造决定寄生虫的遗传变异的命运 成功这项工作将导致一个功能验证，实验上听话的宿主-寄生虫模型 共同进化 总之，这些项目将有助于在进化基因组学的接口博士后培训， 功能遗传学和实验生物化学。通过培训获得的新技能和独立性 将促进过渡到进化基因组学的研究生涯。芝加哥大学 由于大学在生物科学领域的实力、广阔的发展空间，因此拥有从事这项工作的特殊环境 资源，以及共同赞助者和当地合作者的专门知识。

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.