Collaborative Research: Molecular Phylogenetics and Coevolution in Yuccas and Yucca Moths

DEB-0075803N。Olof Pellmyr博士N.范德比尔特大学的Olof Pellmyr与James H.科尔盖特大学的李本斯-麦克获得了一笔研究植物和飞蛾之间相互作用的基金。 共同进化是推动多样化和物种形成的一个重要过程，但对这一过程的理解受到缺乏模式生物群体的遗传学（家谱）的阻碍。 丝兰和丝兰蛾在专性授粉互惠共生中联系在一起，通常被认为是共同进化最明显的例子之一。PI建议使用多基因测序来完成丝兰（龙舌兰科）和丝兰蛾（Prodoxidae：鳞翅目）的强大生物体遗传。结果将被用来测试假设的共同进化，平行物种形成，和多样化的主机转移的作用。 比较分析将被用来量化在蛾和植物的个体性状的水平上的共同进化。 目标1的目标是建立一个稳定的系统发育的基础上的DNA序列数据的植物属丝兰。他们将使用多基因方法，使用细胞核和细胞质标记，以建立一个强大的物种水平的同源性。在目标2中，PI将使用类似的方法来解决一组快速多样化的丝兰蛾群之间的关系，这些蛾群的起源与许多生活史进化相吻合。目标3利用蛾和植物系统发育来检验与协同进化相关的假设。 本文将估计共种的分布和频率，并进行比较分析，以测试寄主转移和产卵行为的进化如何影响食物宽度和多样化率。 最后，蛾和植物之间的潜在利益冲突，应体现通过选择的主要影响产卵成功的蛾和最小化的种子破坏的植物性状。 蛾产卵器的形状，产卵地点，和花子房的形状和厚度是候选性状，是高度可变的物种之间。 它们将是祖先重建和比较分析的重点，以划分共同进化和系统发育的多样化组成部分。总之，该项目的结果应该为任何共同进化和互利共生的模型提供第一个物种水平的系统发育框架。它将为分析共同进化如何在性状水平上对生物多样性的产生做出贡献开辟一个场所。

DEB-0075803N. Olof PellmyrDr. N. Olof Pellmyr of Vanderbilt Univerisity, in collaboration with Dr. James H. Leebens-Mack of Colgate University, has beeen awarded a grant to study coveolutionary interactions between plants and moths. Coevolution is an important process in driving diversification and speciation, but understanding of this process is hampered by a lack of phylogenies (family trees) for model groups of organisms. Yuccas and yucca moths are tied in an obligate pollination mutualism, commonly cited as one of the most obvious examples of coevolution. The PIs propose to use multi-gene sequencing to complete robust organismal phylogenies for both yuccas (Agavaceae) and yucca moths (Prodoxidae: Lepidoptera). The results will be used to test hypotheses of coevolution, parallel speciation, and the role of host shifts in diversification. Comparative analyses will be used to quantify coevolution at the level of individual traits in the moths and plants. The goal of objective 1 is to establish a stable phylogeny based on DNA sequence data for the plant genus Yucca. They will use a multi-gene approach, using both nuclear and cytoplasmic markers, to establish a robust species-level phylogeny. In objective 2, the PIs will use a similar approach to resolve relationships among a cluster of rapidly diversified groups of yucca moths whose origin coincided with much life history evolution. Objective 3 utilizes the moth and plant phylogenies to test hypotheses related to coevolution. The distribution and frequency of cospeciation will be estimated, and and comparative analysis emplyed to test how host shifting and evolution of oviposition behavior affect diet breadth and rates of diversification. Finally, the underlying conflict of interests between moth and plant should manifest through selection on traits with major effects on oviposition success in the moth and minimization of seed destruction in the plant. Moth ovipositor shape, oviposition site, and floral ovary shape and thickness are candidate traits that are highly variable among species. They will be the focus of ancestor reconstruction and comparative analyses to partition coevolutionary and phylogenetic components of diversification. Together, the results from the project should provide the first phylogenetic framework at the species level for any of the models of coevolution and mutualism. It will open a venue for analyzing how coevolution acts at the trait level to contribute to the generation of biodiversity.