Megatransect Population Genetic Survey of the Andes and the Adaptive Hemoglobin Respiratory Proteins of South American Ducks

南美洲的安第斯科迪勒拉提供了一个无与伦比的机会来研究当地适应高海拔呼吸的血红蛋白的适应特性(在4000米处，氧分压是海平面的60%)。据预测，缺氧和自然选择在安第斯山脉内水鸟的物种形成中发挥了因果作用，塑造了形态，并在共同的特有区域中细分了共同分布的亚种和种群。南美鸭子的种群遗传学和血红蛋白的适应特性将在安第斯山脉的大范围内进行研究。有担保的标本将被收集并存档于博物馆藏品中。成人和胚胎的a-和b-血红蛋白基因将被测序，并与独立进化的线粒体DNA和核基因进行比较。本研究将通过研究适应的群体遗传学，弥合系统发生学和生理遗传学之间的差距。它将提供比较的DNA和氨基酸序列数据，包括关于安第斯山脉适应性进化的氨基酸位置的具体信息。这些信息将有助于高海拔生理和基因表达的研究，并消除生物分子适应及其在刺激生物多样性方面的作用研究中长期存在的历史与机制、模式和过程之间的脱节。

South America's Andean Cordillera offers an unparalleled opportunity to study the adaptive characteristics of hemoglobin proteins that are locally adapted for high-altitude respiration (oxygen pressure is 60% of sea level at 4,000 meters). Hypoxia and natural selection are predicted to have played causal roles in the speciation of waterfowl within the Andes, shaping morphology and subdividing co-distributed subspecies and populations among shared areas of endemism. The population genetics of South American ducks and adaptive characteristics of hemoglobins will be studied across a Megatransect of the Andes. Vouchered specimens will be collected and archived in museum collections. Adult and embryonic a- and b-hemoglobin genes will be sequenced and compared to mitochondrial DNA and nuclear genes that have evolved independently.This study will bridge a gap between phylogenetic systematics and physiological genetics by studying the population genetics of adaptation. It will provide comparative DNA and amino acid sequence data, including specific information about the amino acid positions that have evolved adaptively in the Andes. This information will contribute to studies of high-altitude physiology and gene expression and erode the long-standing disconnect between history and mechanism and pattern and process in studies of biomolecular adaptation and its role in stimulating biodiversity.