International Research Fellowship Program: Integrated Genomic Analysis of Neutral and Adaptive Variation in Natural Populations of the Zebrafish

[601864]惠特利国际研究奖学金计划使美国科学家和工程师能够到国外进行9至24个月的研究。该计划的奖励为联合研究提供了机会，并利用独特或互补的设施、专业知识和国外的实验条件。该奖项将支持Andrew R. Whiteley博士与加拿大拉瓦尔大学Louis Bernatchez博士进行为期24个月的研究。该项目的主要目标是从基因型、基因表达到表型的水平推进对适应进化的理解，并在进化史和保护的背景下解释适应模式。PI和东道主将对斑马鱼（Danio rerio）如何在其印度本土范围内适应高速和低速水生栖息地进行详细分析。他们将比较两个不同地理区域内和之间的两个高速水流环境（河流）和两个低速水流环境（池塘/湖泊）的种群。此外，他们还将结合对游泳表现重要基因的等位基因频率变异、同一组基因的表达水平、游泳生理学和形态学的分析，对水流速度差异的适应性反应进行全面分析，并对印度各地中性分子标记的遗传分化进行系统地理学分析。这种分析将允许根据种群之间的进化分歧来解释所分析的性状（从基因频率到表型），并允许他们考虑遗传漂变对这组性状的影响，因为它将提供中性遗传分化的估计。此外，平行表型进化的测试，即在密切相关的谱系中同一性状在高速和低速栖息地的独立进化，将用于了解自然选择在塑造表型变异中的作用。这种从基因、基因表达到表型的分析组合是可能的，因为对野生斑马鱼种群的研究可以建立在令人难以置信的详细的发育知识和分子遗传学的基础上，以及我们已经拥有的大量分子工具。这项研究有望填补我们对有机体适应性进化的机制基础的理解空白。此外，这项研究还将提供有关印度斑马鱼进化史的信息，从而初步了解在一个人口密度非常高的国家中一种鱼类的保护单位，并在其高度多样化的栖息地类型（其中一些被认为是生物多样性热点）中迫切关注保护问题。

0601864WhiteleyThe International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct nine to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.This award will support a twenty-four-month research fellowship by Dr. Andrew R. Whiteley to work with Dr. Louis Bernatchez at University Laval in Canada.The primary goals of this project are to advance understanding of adaptive evolution from the level of the genotype, to gene expression, to phenotype and to interpret adaptive patterns within the context of evolutionary history and conservation. The PI and host will conduct a detailed analysis of how zebrafish (Danio rerio) in their native range in India have adapted to high and low velocity aquatic habitats. They will compare populations from two high velocity lotic environments (rivers) to two low velocity lentic environments (ponds/lakes) within and between two geographically separate regions. Also they will combine analyses of variation in allele frequencies of genes important for swimming performance, expression levels at the same set of genes, swimming physiology, and morphology for a comprehensive analysis of adaptive response to differences in water velocity, as well as conducting a phylogeographic analysis of genetic differentiation at neutral molecular markers across India. This analysis will allow interpretation in the traits analyzed (from gene frequency to phenotype) in terms of evolutionary divergence among populations and allow them to consider the effects of genetic drift on this suite of characters because it will provide an estimate of neutral genetic differentiation. In addition, tests for parallel phenotypic evolution, the independent evolution of the same trait in closely related lineages, to high and low velocity habitats will be used to understand the role of natural selection in shaping phenotypic variation. This combination of analysis from gene, to gene expression, to phenotype is possible because studies of wild populations of zebrafish can build on the incredibly detailed knowledge of development and molecular genetics as well as the enormous array of molecular tools that we already possess for this species. This research promises to fill a void in our understanding of the mechanistic underpinnings of organismal adaptive evolution. Moreover, this research will also provide information on the evolutionary history of zebrafish in India and thus, an initial understanding of the conservation units of a fish species in a country with very high human population densities and pressing conservation concerns in its highly varied habitat types (some of which are considered biodiversity hot spots).