Species Recognition and Reproductive Isolation in Fungi: Neurospora, an Evolutionary Model

“真菌的物种识别和生殖隔离：神经孢子菌的进化模型”一项资助已授予加州大学伯克利分校的约翰·W·泰勒博士，以识别真菌神经孢子菌的物种限制。泰勒和他的同事们将利用DNA变异的进化分析来识别基因隔离的物种，并利用交配成功来识别生殖隔离的物种。利用这两种方法在远缘繁殖的神经孢子虫种的N. crassa分支中发现了三个新种，本次拨款将重点研究这三个新种，以及将这两种识别物种的方法应用于该属的N.离散分支。当得出结论时，这项研究应该提供必要的基础知识，使神经孢子虫在进化生物学中像果蝇或大肠杆菌一样有用。这项研究是重要的，因为它提供了最全面的比较在任何生物体的两种重要的生物学方法识别物种，遗传隔离和生殖隔离。对于真菌来说，这是加倍重要的，因为大多数真菌无法评估繁殖成功率，但遗传隔离可以。识别物种对所有比较生物学都是必不可少的，在真菌方面，对疫苗设计、室内空气质量以及因生物错误或生物恐怖而不受欢迎的外来真菌的引入等各种领域具有根本的实际重要性。这项资助的结果使比较生物学成为可能，生物学家将利用在北美各地发现的新发现的离散北蝽种群，以及新测序的N. crassa和N.离散北蝽基因组，来了解基因的变化及其活动如何使生物体适应当地环境。这项资助的研究将提供神经孢子虫进化史的路线图，这张地图将使生物学家了解这条路是如何建成的。

DEB-0316710"Species recognition and reproductive isolation in fungi: Neurospora an evolutionary model"A grant has been awarded to Dr. John W Taylor of University of California at Berkeley to recognize the limits of species in the fungus Neurospora. Taylor and colleagues will recognize species that are genetically isolated using evolutionary analysis of DNA variation and will recognize species that are reproductively isolated using mating success. Use of the two approaches has discovered three new species in the N. crassa branch of the outbreeding Neurospora species and this grant will focus on these three new species, as well as the application of the two methods of recognizing species to the N. discreta branch of the genus. When concluded, this research should provide the fundamental knowledge needed to make Neurospora as useful to evolutionary biology as has been Drosophila or E. coli.This research is important because it is providing the most comprehensive comparison in any organism of the two biologically important methods of recognizing species, genetic isolation and reproductive isolation. For fungi, it is doubly important because reproductive success cannot be assessed in most fungi, but genetic isolation can. Recognizing species is essential to all comparative biology and, in fungi, is of fundamental practical importance to fields as diverse as vaccine design, indoor air quality and the unwanted introduction of exotic fungi - either by bioerror or bioterror. The comparative biology made possible by the results of this grant will allow biologists to use the newly discovered populations of N. discreta found throughout North America, and the newly sequenced genomes of N. crassa and N. discreta, to learn how changes in genes and their activity allow organisms to adapt to local environment. The research supported by this grant will provide the roadmap of the evolutionary history of Neurospora, and this map will allow biologists to learn how the road was built.