The Evolution of Modularity in the Dentition of Old World Monkeys

生物学中的两个基本问题涉及基因和解剖学之间的关系。基因型如何影响表型？从化石记录来看，这种关系是如何影响形态进化的？在这个项目中，研究人员将测试有关遗传相关性的假设，并调查这些相关性如何随着时间的推移而演变。这个项目的重点是从遗传学和古生物学的角度来看最实用的模式生物-狒狒的齿系。通过之前的NSF资助，研究人员确定并量化了德克萨斯州西南国家灵长类动物研究中心的纯种繁殖狒狒远交种群的齿系中200多个性状的遗传方差和协方差。他们现在将测试这些相关性是否在密切相关的灵长类动物分类群中保持同步（在现存的旧世界猴中，依靠博物馆骨骼收藏）和历时（通过过去1500万年的旧世界猴进化，使用最近在肯尼亚和埃塞俄比亚发现的三种化石组合）。如果通过定量遗传分析确定的牙齿性状之间的相关性在物种、属和时间上确实表现出可靠的稳定性，那么它们将为更好的系统发育重建提供基础，并阐明灵长类牙齿的分子遗传学进化。研究人员将联合收割机结合起来，将看似完全不同的古生物学和数量遗传学领域，以更好地理解形成牙列的遗传和进化力量。该方法基于在其他应用中已取得成功的可靠和经证实的定量遗传理论。牙列是一个理想的解剖区域，测试这些假设，由于较大的遗传成分，其变化相对于其他骨骼，牙齿发育遗传学的进展，在过去十年中，牙齿是化石记录中保存最频繁的元素。狒狒提供了最有用的动物模型之一，因为它们的牙齿解剖结构相对保守（例如，与小鼠的衍生牙列相比）。 在过去的1500万年里，东非有一个相当完整的化石记录，记录了它们的进化过程。除了研究本身，这个项目还将增加生物科学领域的多样性、培训和合作。 部分资金被指定用于支持博士后研究人员。 这个人将是统计学专家，然后将接受骨骼学和古生物学的培训，或者相反，后者学科的专家将接受前者的培训。 除了推动主要研究者的科学事业，一名妇女，一名研究生，和许多本科生将是这个项目的一部分，从而提供许多教育机会。 来自12个以上研究机构的科学家正在合作开展这一项目。 这项合作将加强这些科学家和机构之间的联系，包括公立，私立和外国大学，生物医学研究机构，国家灵长类动物研究中心和众多博物馆。 博士后科学家和学生将有重要的机会在国内和国际旅行，建立专业联系和关系，这将大大有助于他们的学术发展。 这个项目的高度合作性质提供了一个理想的论坛，通过它将产生其他综合研究的想法。

Two fundamental questions in biology concern the relationship between genes and anatomy. How does the genotype effect the phenotype? And how has this relationship influenced morphological evolution as seen through the fossil record? In this project, the investigators will test hypotheses about genetic correlations and investigate how these correlations evolved through time. This project focuses on dentition in a model organism that is the most pragmatic from a genetic and paleontological standpoint -- baboons. Through a previous NSF grant, the investigators identified and quantified genetic variances and covariances among more than 200 traits in the dentitions of an outbred population of pedigreed breeding baboons housed at the Southwest National Primate Research Center in Texas. They now will test to see if these correlations are maintained across closely related primate taxa both synchronically (across extant Old World Monkeys, relying on museum skeletal collections) and diachronically (through the last 15 million years of Old World Monkey evolution, using three fossil assemblages recently recovered in Kenya and Ethiopia). If the correlations between dental traits, identified through quantitative genetic analyses, do demonstrate a reliable stability across species, genera, and time, then they will provide the foundation for better phylogenetic reconstructions as well as elucidate the evolution of the molecular genetics of the primate dentition.This project is possible because of the increasingly integrative nature of biological research. The investigators combine the seemingly disparate fields of paleontology and quantitative genetics to better understand the genetic and evolutionary forces that have shaped the dentition. The approach is based on sound and demonstrated quantitative genetic theory that has been successful in other applications. The dentition is an ideal anatomical region on which to test these hypotheses due to the larger genetic component to its variation relative to the rest of the skeleton, the advances in dental developmental genetics over the last decade, and the fact that teeth are the most frequently preserved elements in the fossil record. Baboons provide one of the most useful animal models because of their relatively conserved dental anatomy (compared to the derived dentitions of mice, for example). A fairly well documented and well-studied fossil record exists of their evolution over the last 15 million years in eastern Africa.In addition to the research itself, this project will increase diversity, training, and collaboration within the biological sciences. Funding, in part, is designated for a post-doctoral researcher's support. This person will be a specialist in statistics, who will then be trained in osteology and paleontology, or the contrary, a specialist in the latter disciplines who will be trained in the former. In addition to advancing the principal investigator's scientific career, a woman, a graduate student, and numerous undergraduates will be part of this project, thereby providing numerous educational opportunities. Scientists affiliated with over 12 research institutions are collaborating on this project. This collaboration will increase ties between these scientists and institutions, including public, private, and foreign universities, a biomedical research facility, a national primate research center, and numerous museums. The postdoctoral scientist and students will have significant opportunities to travel domestically and internationally, establishing professional contacts and relationships that will contribute significantly to their academic development. The highly collaborative nature of this project provides the ideal forum through which other integrative research ideas will be generated.