Deuterostome extracellular matrix structures (ossicles, tubes & gill bars): Evolution, composition and development.

我的计划旨在了解细胞外基质结构（EMS）的同源性，以及它们如何在进化和发展的时间尺度上变化。EMS包括骨架、管、壳和鳃条。它们被古生物学家、发育生物学家、物理化学家、材料科学家、医学研究人员和海洋酸化科学家广泛研究。有这么多的材料使用和形态产生，共同的线程连接不同类群的基本结构是相当大的兴趣。我研究EMS（骨架，管和鳃杆）在后口动物。后口动物包括三门;半索动物是一小群海洋无脊椎动物，是棘皮动物的姐妹群（它们一起形成了Ambulacraria），而后者又是脊索动物的姐妹。半索动物由两个主要的纲组成，一个是独居的橡子虫，另一个是群居的管栖翼鳃类（包括笔石）。在我职业生涯的早期，我假设脊索动物的鳃，包括非细胞分泌的胶原蛋白，是一种后口类（祖先）特征，存在于橡子虫中，但在棘皮动物中丢失。在过去的5年里，我发现了支持这一假设的比较和功能形态学，分子发育，比较基因组学，包括咽和鳃发育基因的同线性的发现，以及寒武纪化石橡子蠕虫与鳃的发现。今天，这一假设已被广泛接受。在这里，我建议采用相同的多学科方法来测试三个假设（前两个是新的，并归因于过去5年的NSERC计划）的起源和演化的后口EMS。我在橡子虫中发现了棘皮动物样的骨骼小骨，这导致了假设1：棘皮动物的小骨是一种步行动物的近形。其次，我们发现了寒武纪管栖橡子虫，这导致了假说#2：翼鳃管是一种半索类近形动物。 最后，我们将测试假设#3： 已灭绝的棘皮动物（stylophorans）有鳃用于过滤器喂养，并在现代类群中丢失。 在5年内，我的计划将支持1个硕士，5个博士，1个博士后和至少30个本科HQP。所有人都将获得实验设计，数据分析，技术写作，公开演讲的经验，并参加每周的实验室会议，讨论论文，学生的进步，当前和新兴的方法，工具和理论。我的计划是一个人才管道，以HQP培训为核心。HQP掌握尖端技术，在项目的背景下，整合基因，细胞，有机体和生物组织的人口水平在两个时间维度发展和地质。其结果是HQP是协作的，适应性强，以解决方案为导向，并融入学术界，工业界，医学和政策。

My program seeks to understand the homology of extracellular matrix structures (EMS) and how they change on evolutionary and developmental time scales. EMS include skeletons, tubes, shells and gill bars. They are widely investigated by paleontologists, developmental biologists, physical chemists, material scientists, medical researchers, and ocean acidification scientists. There are so many materials used and morphologies produced, that common threads connecting basic structures in different taxa are of considerable interest. I study EMS (skeletons, tubes and gill bars) in the deuterostomes. Deuterostomes include three phyla; the Hemichordata are a small group of marine invertebrates that are sister group to Echinodermata (that together form the Ambulacraria'), which in turn is sister to the Chordata. Hemichordates are comprised of two major classes, the solitary acorn worms, and the colonial, tubicolous pterobranchs (including graptolites). Early in my career I hypothesized that chordate gills, including the acellular secreted collagen, are a deuterostome plesiomorphic (ancestral) trait, present in acorn worms, but lost in echinoderms. In the past 5-years I have found support for this hypothesis using comparative and functional morphology, molecular development, comparative genomics including the finding of synteny of pharynx and gill developmental genes, and the discovery of Cambrian fossil acorn worms with gills. Today this hypothesis is widely accepted. Here I propose to adopt the same multidisciplinary approach to test three hypotheses (the first two are novel and attributable to the past 5-years of my NSERC program) on the origin and evolution of deuterostome EMS. My discovery of echinoderm-like skeletal ossicles in acorn worms has led to Hypothesis #1: Echinoderm ossicles are an ambulacrarian plesiomorphy. Secondly, our discoveries of tubicolous Cambrian acorn worms, has led to Hypothesis #2: Pterobranch tubes are a hemichordate plesiomorphy. Finally, we will test Hypothesis #3: Extinct echinoderms (stylophorans) had gills used in filter feeding and lost in modern taxa. Over 5-years my program will support 1 MSc, 5 PhD, 1 post-doc and at minimum 30 undergraduate HQPs. All will gain experience in experimental design, data analysis, technical writing, public speaking and attend weekly lab meetings to discuss papers, student progress, current and emerging methods, tools and theory. My program is a talent pipeline, designed with HQP training at its core. HQPs master cutting edge techniques, in the context of projects that integrate the gene, cell, organism, and population levels of biological organization in two temporal dimensions developmental and geological. The result is HQPs that are collaborative, adaptable, solution oriented and who integrate into academia, industry, medicine, and policy.