The Genetics of Evolutionary Inference in Drosophila

这项研究将试图回答一些基本问题， 生物种群进化。 两个密切相关的物种， 果蝇和果蝇simulans，将被研究 因为它们很容易在实验室里饲养， 人们对它们了解很多。 最常见的手术是 将用于获得基因的DNA序列， 这两个物种的几个个体 的序列 将研究六种不同的基因。 通过比较DNA序列， 这两个物种在DNA水平上的差异 来自同一物种的个体在DNA水平上。 这些 数据将与进化的数学模型进行比较， 过程 如果数据很好地拟合模型，则模型可以 这对我们提出自然选择 影响个体间DNA差异的数量， 物种之间。 如果数据与模型拟合得不好，那么我们的 对产生这些模型的进化的理解是不正确的， 模型必须修正。

This research will try to answer basic questions about how populations of organisms evolve. Two closely related species, Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila simulans, will be studied because they are easy to rear in the laboratory and because a great deal is known about them. The most common procedure to be used will be obtaining the sequence of the DNA of genes in several individuals from both of these species. The sequences of six different genes will be studied. By comparing DNA sequences it will be clear how different these two species are at the DNA level as well as how different individuals from the same species are at the DNA level. These data will be compared to mathematical models of the evolutionary process. If the data fit the models well, then the models can be very useful for asking questions about how natural selection affects the amount of DNA divergence seen between individuals and between species. If the data fit the models poorly, then our understanding of evolution that produced the models is incorrect, and the models must be revised.