Linking Evolution to Genomics Using Phenotype Ontologies

南达科他州大学主校区获得了一项资助，用于开发工具，利用本体论整合进化和模式生物表型数据，以解决有关进化形态转变的遗传和发育调节的问题。该项目将开发和应用一个大型鱼类分支（鱼性纲）的分类群和表型本体论，并开发一套数据库和网络接口工具，使研究人员能够研究进化表型与斑马鱼（鱼性纲中的一个物种）的遗传特征发育突变之间的关系。结合斑马鱼众多表型突变的丰富基因组数据，以及相应的鱼性动物物种的解剖多样性，将使研究人员能够发现以前未实现的进化变化、基因和这些基因发挥作用的发育过程之间的联系。团队将通过实现一定数量的用例查询作为概念验证来演示该方法的可行性。查询将通过基于web的用户界面实现，用于搜索和分析数据内容。这项研究将与北卡罗来纳大学的国家进化综合中心合作进行。

The University of South Dakota Main Campus is awarded a grant to develop tools to integrate evolutionary and model organism phenotype data using ontologies in order to address questions about the genetic and developmental regulation of evolutionary morphological transitions. The project will develop and apply ontologies for taxa and phenotypes in a large clade of fishes (the Ostariophysi) and to develop a suite of database and web-interface tools that will enable researchers to investigate relationships between evolutionary phenotypes and those seen in genetically characterized developmental mutants of zebrafish (a species within Ostariophysi). Combining the wealth of genomic data on the numerous phenotypic mutants for zebrafish, with the span of corresponding anatomical diversity in ostariophysan species will allow researchers to discover previously unrealized connections between evolutionary change, genes, and the developmental processes in which these genes play a role. The team will demonstrate the feasibility of the approach by implementing a select number of use-case queries as a proof-of-concept. The queries will be implemented via a web-based user interface for searching and analyzing the data content. The research will be carried out in collaboration with the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center at the University of North Carolina.