Instrumentation Facility for Biosystematics

该奖项为建立脊椎动物和无脊椎动物分类学研究的共用仪器设施提供资金。该设备可以对单个蛋白质的核和线粒体DNA含量、染色体结构、解剖变异和电泳变异进行自动化分析。将购买的设备包括一台流式细胞仪/细胞分选仪，用于计算机增强核型分析的数字成像系统，以及用于形态计量分析的图像分析系统。对生物体变异的研究对于我们理解生物体的进化关系，以及遗传和发育变异在生物体适应环境和相互竞争能力中的作用，起着至关重要的作用。就其性质而言，这类研究需要通过对许多个体进行重复且往往单调乏味的分析而获得具有统计学意义的数据。能够在生物、细胞和亚细胞水平上测量变异的先进成像系统和其他设备的发展，大大提高了测量个体之间和密切相关物种之间变异的简便性和准确性。

This award provides funds for the establishment of a shared instrument facility for studies of the systematics of vertebrate and invertebrate animals. The equipment permits automated analyses of nuclear and mitochondrial DNA content, chromosome structure, anatomical variation, and of electrophoretic variation in individual proteins. The equipment to be purchased consists of a flow cytometer/cell sorter, digital imaging system for computer enhanced karyotype analysis, and an image analysis system for morphometric analysis. Studies of organismal variation play a crucial role in our understanding of the evolutionary relationships of organisms and of the role of genetic and developmental variation in the adaptation of organisms to their environment and in their ability to compete with each other. By their nature, such studies demand statistically meaningful data obtained by repetitive and often tedious analysis of many individuals. The development of advanced imaging systems and other equipment capable of measuring variation at the organismal, cellular and subcellular level has substantially improved the ease and accuracy of measurement of variation between individuals, and between closely related species.