U.S.-Mexico Collaborative Research: Host Use and Diversification of Drosophila Group Species

9724790 Etges这一美国-墨西哥奖项将支持阿肯色大学的William Etges博士与墨西哥大都会大学的Miguel Armella Villalpando博士进行研究合作。研究人员计划研究昆虫物种之间的寄主利用模式，以分析祖先和派生种群之间的资源关联和寄主植物转换的程度。特别是，他们计划研究D reeta群体物种的寄主关系，这是果蝇属中一个嗜仙人掌的大群体，被认为起源于新大陆沙漠，包括墨西哥中部盛产仙人掌的干旱土地。这一合作将使我们能够在墨西哥中部的沙漠中定位和识别D.repleta的仙人掌宿主，并将增加我们对这一特定群体物种进化的了解，尽管过去50年来进行了集中的研究工作，但对该物种的了解仍然很少。利用目前使用分子方法得出的这些物种之间的系统发育关系，研究人员建议使用宿主使用模式来洞察生物多样性的过程，这些过程导致了这个庞大的物种群体。***

9724790 Etges This U.S.-Mexico award will support Dr. William Etges of the University of Arkansas in a research collaboration with Dr. Miguel Armella Villalpando of the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana (Iztapalapa campus) in Mexico. The researchers plan to study patterns of host use among insect species to analyze resource associations and degree of host plant switching among ancestral and derived groups. In particular, they plan to study the host relationships of the D. repleta group species, a cactophilic large group within the genus Drosophila thought to have originated in New World deserts, including the cactus-rich arid lands of central Mexico. This collaboration will allow the location and identification of cactus hosts of D.repleta in the deserts of central Mexico and will increase our understanding of the evolution of this particular group species, which, despite concentrated research efforts over the last 50 years, remains poorly understood. Using phylogenetic relationships among these species, currently derived using molecular approaches, the researchers propose to use patterns of host use to gain insight into the processes of biological diversification that have given rise to this large species group. ***