IRCEB: The Phylogenetics and Functional Integration of Complex Phenotypes Regulating Social/Reproductive Interactions

物种形成，一个物种分裂成两个物种的进化过程，创造了我们今天在世界上看到的惊人的生物多样性。 行为在物种形成中起着重要作用。 动物通常有表示身份的信号--颜色、歌声或气味。 雌性在选择配偶时会密切关注这些信号，避免与其他物种的雄性交配。 了解这些通讯系统如何调节生殖相互作用对于理解为什么有这么多物种是很重要的。来自DNA序列的信息将被用来重建生殖发生--分裂的历史模式--产生了酸浆属青蛙的物种。 该基因将被用来解释物种之间的差异，在呼叫，声道结构，激素配置文件，行为反应的呼叫差异，以及在大脑中的听觉中心的神经生物学。 我们的目标是推断物种特异性信号的差异和女性对这些信号的偏好差异是如何演变的。

Speciation, the evolutionary process by which one species splits into two, has created the staggering biodiversity that we see in the world today. Behavior plays a large role in speciation. Animals usually have signals - colors, songs, or smells - that indicate identity. Females attend to these signals closely when choosing a mate, and avoid mating with males of other species. Understanding how these communication systems regulate reproductive interactions is important to understanding why there are so many species.Information from DNA sequences will be used to reconstruct the phylogeny - the historical pattern of splitting - that produced the species in the frog genus Physalaemus. The phylogeny will be used to interpret differences among species in calls, vocal tract structure, hormone profiles, behavioral responses to call differences, and the neurobiology of the auditory centers in the brain. The goal is to deduce how differences in species-specific signals and differences in female preferences for these signals have evolved.