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

我的计划试图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育时间尺度上发生变化。EMS包括骨架、管子、贝壳和刺条。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对它们进行了广泛的研究。所使用的材料和产生的形态如此之多，以至于连接不同类群中基本结构的公共线引起了相当大的兴趣。我研究了后口动物的EMS(骨骼、管子和鳃)。后口动物包括三个门；半口目是一小群海洋无脊椎动物，是棘皮目的姐妹群(共同形成棘皮目)，棘皮目又是脊索纲的姐妹。半角类由两大类组成，一类是独居的橡子蠕虫，另一类是群居的双节翼形目(包括笔石类)。在我职业生涯的早期，我假设脊索状的鳃，包括无细胞分泌的胶原蛋白，是后口的一种多形性(祖先)特征，存在于橡子虫中，但在棘皮动物中消失了。在过去的5年里，我利用比较和功能形态学、分子发育、比较基因组学(包括发现咽和鳃发育基因的同时性)以及寒武纪有鳃的橡子虫化石的发现，找到了对这一假说的支持。如今，这一假设已被广泛接受。在这里，我建议采用同样的多学科方法来检验关于后口EMS起源和进化的三个假说(前两个是新颖的，可归因于我过去5年的NSERC计划)。我在橡子虫中发现了类似棘皮动物的骨骼听小骨，这导致了假设1：棘皮动物听小骨是一种动态多形性动物。其次，我们对寒武纪双节状橡子蠕虫的发现导致了假说#2：翼支管是半纹状的多形体。最后，我们将检验假设3：已灭绝的棘皮动物有用于滤食的鳃，并在现代分类群中消失。 在5年的时间里，我的计划将支持1名硕士、5名博士、1名博士后和至少30名本科生HQP。所有人都将在实验设计、数据分析、技术写作、公开演讲方面获得经验，并参加每周的实验室会议，讨论论文、学生进展、当前和新兴的方法、工具和理论。我的项目是一个人才管道，以HQP培训为核心设计。HQP掌握尖端技术，在开发和地质两个时间维度整合生物组织的基因、细胞、有机体和种群水平的项目背景下。其结果是HQP具有协作性、适应性、以解决方案为导向，并融入学术界、工业、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.