U.S.-France Cooperative Research: Molecular Population Genetics of Old-World and New-World Drosophila

9981452这个为期两年的奖项旨在表彰美法在人口和进化生物学方面的合作，参与者包括布朗大学的大卫·m·兰德和一位博士后研究员，以及法国巴黎玛丽和皮埃尔居里大学的米歇尔·维耶。他们的合作旨在广泛表征旧世界和新世界果蝇种群内和之间的遗传变异，黑腹果蝇和拟果蝇。据信，这种物种起源于非洲，传播到欧洲地区，最近在新大陆殖民。地理上分散的种群的存在提供了一个独特的机会来测试可能已经进化了几个世纪的遗传变异。研究人员将集中精力收集显示细胞核多态性的天然样本，这种情况在欧洲发现，但在北美没有。他们将检验细胞核适应性相互作用在x连锁核位点与常胞质位点之间存在差异的假设。此外，他们将测试群体分化和分子进化的中性模型。该奖项代表了美国方面向美国国家科学基金会和法国国家科学研究中心（CNRS）提交的联合提案。美国国家科学基金会将承担美国研究员和博士后研究员采集样本、准备样本副本和随后分析样本的旅费和生活费。该项目将促进我们对遗传变异如何在旧世界和新世界物种中进化的理解。

9981452RandThis two-year award for U.S.-France collaboration in population and evolutionary biology involves David M. Rand and a postdoctoral researcher from Brown University and Michel Veuille of the University Marie et Pierre Curie in Paris, France. Their collaboration is aimed at an extensive characterization of genetic variation within and among Old World and New World populations of the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila simulans. It is believed that this species originated in Africa, spread to European locations and more recently colonized the New World. The presence of geographically dispersed populations offers a unique opportunity to test genetic variations that may have evolved over centuries. The investigators will focus their effort on collecting natural samples showing a cytonuclear polymorphism, a condition found in European, but not North American samples of D. melanogaster. They will test the hypothesis that cytonuclear fitness interactions are differed for X-linked nuclear locus versus autsomal-cytoplasmic locus. In addition they will test neutral models of population differentiation and molecular evolution. This award represents the U.S. side of a joint proposal to the NSF and the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). NSF will cover travel funds and living expenses for the U.S. investigator and postdoctoral researcher to collect samples, prepare duplication accessions of samples and subsequently analyze them. The project will advance our understanding of how genetic variations may have evolved in old world and new world species.