Dissertation Research: Ecological Genetics of a Cline in Adaptive Pigmentation

该项目的目标是确定导致奥德菲尔德小鼠(小儿麻痹症小鼠)自然种群保持颜色变异的进化因素，并确定有助于这种适应性着色的基因，这种适应性着色通过将背部毛色与土壤颜色相匹配来伪装小鼠免受捕食者的伤害。将使用定量和分子工具的组合来检查沿180公里土壤颜色梯度的10个种群收集的博物馆标本，以解决以下问题：(1)跨越该生态梯度的种群之间发生了多少色素变化和基因流动，以及(2)颜色基因的基因型是否与毛色变化相关？这项研究在环境、生物体和潜在的遗传学之间建立了明确的联系，以了解生物体如何适应环境。这项研究的结果将为自然选择对野生种群色素沉着的作用提供明确的证据。这项研究的更广泛影响将是：(1)突出博物馆藏品在现代研究中的重要性，(2)产生有助于保护和管理濒临灭绝的Permyscus种群的信息，以及(3)将本科生教育和公众宣传纳入科学进程。

The goal of this project is to identify the evolutionary factors responsible for maintaining color variation in natural populations of oldfield mice (Peromyscus polionotus) and to identify genes contributing to this adaptive coloration, which camouflages the mice from predators by matching dorsal coat color to soil color. A combination of quantitative and molecular tools will be used to examine museum specimens collected across ten populations along a 180km gradient of soil color to address the following questions: (1) how much pigmentation variation and gene flow occurs among populations across this ecological gradient, and (2) do genotypes at pigmentation genes correlate with variation in coat color? This research makes an explicit link between the environment, the organism and the underlying genetics to understand how organisms adapt to their environment.Results from this research will provide a clear demonstration of natural selection acting on pigmentation in wild populations. The broader impacts of this study will be: (1) to highlight the importance of museum collections in modern research, (2) to generate information useful for conservation and management of endangered populations of Peromyscus, and (3) to incorporate undergraduate education and public outreach into the scientific process.