Testing Speciation Hypotheses with Genomic Analyses in Montane Grasshoppers

尽管经过了半个世纪的探索，关于新物种如何形成的基本问题仍然充满争议。该项目使用两种互补的分析方法来研究落基山脉山地蝗虫物种形成的动态。 整个基因组的遗传变异模式将被用来测试假说的地理和进化过程中的物种形成的作用，并确定可能参与这组山地蝗虫物种形成的基因。这些研究将揭示导致物种多样化的因素的相对贡献和优势。 这些信息也将是必不可少的，以确定如何这些蝗虫能够经历一个惊人的进化辐射在动态更新世时，在其他生物的多样性显然是由伴随着冰川周期的气候波动抑制。 研究生和本科生将接受培训，不仅在收集基因组数据的技术方面，而且在最近的分析进展。 将这一研究纳入讲习班，课程和研讨会将提供一个教学工具，说明如何长期的争论物种多样化可以解决这些问题时，在严格的统计框架研究。 最后，有价值的标本将被添加到密歇根大学动物学博物馆的昆虫收藏中，供其他研究人员使用。

Despite over half a century of inquiry, fundamental questions about how new species form remain steeped in controversy. This project uses two complementary analytical approaches to study the dynamics of species formation in montane grasshoppers from the Rocky Mountains. Patterns of genetic variation across the genome will be used to test hypotheses about the role of geography and evolutionary processes in speciation, and to identify genes that may be involved in speciation in this group of montane grasshoppers. Together, these studies will reveal the relative contribution and strengths of factors that cause species diversification. This information will also be essential for determining how these grasshoppers were able to undergo a striking evolutionary radiation during the dynamic Pleistocene when diversification in other organisms was apparently inhibited by the climatic fluctuations accompanying the glacial cycles. Graduate and undergraduate students will be trained not only in technical aspects of collecting genomic data, but also in recent analytical advances. Incorporation of this research into workshops, courses, and seminars will provide a pedagogical tool integral for illustrating how longstanding debates about species diversification can be addressed when such questions are studied in a rigorous statistical framework. Lastly, valuable specimens will be added to the Museum of Zoology's insect collection at the University of Michigan, making them available to other researchers.