Dissertation Research: The Evolution of Hybrid Incompatibility in the Beetle, Tribolium castaneum

该项目的目标是了解复杂遗传结构的进化及其在物种形成的早期阶段所起的作用。这项研究包括三个阶段：(1)从世界各地的种群中收集面粉甲虫（Tribolium castaneum）进行杂交，以产生所有的第一代和第二代杂交品种。然后对这些杂交进行统计分析，以量化遗传相互作用的贡献；(2)群体结构——对于杂交群体，我们将分析mtDNA序列和微卫星标记变异，以量化它们之间的遗传差异；(3)绘图-将组装一个微卫星连锁图，以找到负责杂交不相容的基因组区域。基因相互作用对物种形成很重要，因为负的基因相互作用是降低杂交适应度所必需的。另一方面，商业农业成功的一个主要原因是杂交生产力的提高。这项研究将有助于理解基因相互作用，以及相关人群之间的地理和遗传差异如何导致某些情况下适应性降低而另一些情况下适应性增加。

The goal of this project is to understand the evolution of complex genetic architectures and the role they play in the early stages of speciation. The study involves three phases: (1) Line crosses between flour beetles (Tribolium castaneum) collected from populations around the world to produce all 1st and 2nd generation hybrids. These crosses are then analyzed statistically to quantify the contribution of genetic interactions; (2) Population structure - for the line-cross populations, we will assay mtDNA sequence and microsatellite marker variation to quantify the genetic divergence among them; and, (3) Mapping - A microsatellite linkage map will be assembled to find regions of the genome responsible for hybrid incompatibility. Gene interactions are important to speciation because negative genetic interactions are necessary to lower hybrid fitness. On the other hand, a major reason for the success of commercial agriculture is increased hybrid productivity. This study will contribute to the understanding of gene interactions and the understanding of how geographic and genetic divergence among related populations leads to decreased fitness in some cases but increased fitness in others.