Bridging Micro and Macroevolutionary Patterns: Population Genetics of Coevolutionary History

菲尔德博物馆的Jason Weckstein和John Bates和Museu Paraense的Alex Aleixo Emily io Goeldi将使用DNA测序技术重建两个共同分布的巨嘴鸟宿主群体与它们的两个寄生口虱属之间的联系历史。他们的主要目标是确定不同的寄生虫群如何应对相同的地理和栖息地扰动(宿主的多样化和物种形成)，这些寄生虫群的生物学和生态学特征不同。对寄主和永久体外寄生虫的研究为重建发生多样化和物种形成过程的历史和环境背景提供了独特的机会。永久体外寄生虫被假设与它们的宿主共享共同的进化史，因此，人们可以通过将寄生虫的进化史叠加到宿主的进化史上来重建宿主和寄生虫之间相互作用的历史。这项研究中包括的复制寄生虫谱系在相同的鸟类宿主上生活在整个生命周期中，但它们属于不同的虱子亚目，在各种生物学和生态特征上存在差异。通过比较这些复制的寄生虫组，这项研究将评估每种寄生虫生物学的独特特征如何与宿主的多样性相关。从这个简单的系统中获得的见解将有助于揭示更复杂的自由生命有机体系统中物种形成和多样化的模式。该项目还具有许多重要的社会效益。首先，这项工作将记录亚马逊地区生物多样性的基本模式，亚马逊地区是地球上最丰富的生态系统之一。它还将涉及来自菲尔德自然历史博物馆和埃米利奥·戈尔迪博物馆的美国和巴西研究人员之间的国际合作。研究人员和学生将在这两个机构之间旅行，教授、学习、工作和相互合作，以加深我们对热带物种形成和多样化的理解。这一国际合作将为研究亚马逊地区的多样性和物种形成模式提供一个前所未有的机会。其次，对虱子及其脊椎动物宿主的研究在了解宿主和寄生虫的历史联系方面发挥了突出的作用。使用这些模式生物开发的理论和分析方法已经应用于其他系统，如脊椎动物及其病毒，这些系统对人类健康问题至关重要。这个项目将进一步加深对这类系统的生物学理解，并将帮助我们了解为疾病提供机会的生态特征，这些特征导致寄生虫在宿主之间跳跃。

Jason Weckstein and John Bates of the Field Museum and Alex Aleixo of the Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi will use DNA sequencing technology to reconstruct the history of associations between two codistributed toucan host groups and two of their parasitic chewing louse genera. Their main objective is to determine how different parasite groups, which differ in features of their biology and ecology, respond to identical geographical and habitat perturbations (diversification and speciation of the hosts). Studies of hosts and permanent ectoparasites provide a unique opportunity to reconstruct the history and the environmental context in which the processes of diversification and speciation occur. Permanent ectoparasites are hypothesized to share a common evolutionary history with their hosts, therefore, one can reconstruct this history of interactions between hosts and parasites by superimposing the parasite's evolutionary history onto the host's evolutionary history. The replicate parasite lineages included in this study live their entire life cycles on the same avian hosts, yet are members of different louse suborders that differ in a variety of biological and ecological features. By comparing these replicate parasite groups, this study will assess how unique features of each parasite's biology correlate with diversification in the hosts. Insights gained in this simple system will shed light on patterns of speciation and diversification in the more complex systems of free-living organisms. This project also has a number of important societal benefits. First, this work will document basic patterns of biological diversity in Amazonia, one the earth's richest ecosystems. It also will involve international collaboration between US and Brazilian researchers from the Field Museum of Natural History and the Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi. Researchers and students will travel between these two institutions to teach, learn, work, and collaborate with each other to further our understanding of speciation and diversification in the tropics. This international collaboration will provide an unprecedented opportunity to study patterns of diversification and speciation in the Amazon. Second, studies of lice and their vertebrate hosts have played a prominent role in understanding the historical associations of hosts and their parasites. Theories and analytical methods developed using these model organisms have been applied to other systems such as vertebrates and their viruses, which are critical to human health issues. This project will further the biological understanding of these kinds of systems and will help us to understand the ecological characteristics that provide opportunities for disease causing parasites to jump between hosts.