Doctoral Dissertation Improvement: Genetic Variation and Gene Expression in Wild Baboons

了解基因和生物体水平性状(表型)之间的关系是当今生物学中最重要的问题之一。这种关系对于研究灵长类动物尤其重要，灵长类动物是人类现存的最接近的亲戚。这项工作的目标是在肯尼亚南部安博塞利盆地的一种经过充分研究的野生灵长类动物种群中检验这种关系。使用一组免疫系统基因，研究人员将(1)描述这些基因调节区(决定这些基因何时表达以及表达多少的区域)中的遗传变异，(2)确定影响这些基因表达多少的遗传变异子集的确切性质，以及(3)将这些基因表达数据与研究人群的长期行为和生态数据联系起来，以了解环境如何改变基因表达。这代表着开创性的工作，因为这是第一次研究野生灵长类种群的遗传变异和基因表达，关于生物体水平特征及其发生环境的大量数据已经存在。这项拟议的工作对促进对基因、生物体水平特征和环境之间的关系的理解具有巨大的潜力。此外，它还是第一批对野生动物进行的现代分子种群遗传学研究之一。此外，它还将产生关于野生灵长类动物种群遗传和基因表达变异的新数据集。这项研究将支持制作更大的科学界感兴趣的样本和数据集，并将有助于目前对三名肯尼亚外勤助理的培训。此外，它还将通过使用分子遗传学技术解决人类学和进化论问题，促进该领域的综合研究。最后，它将有助于培养对人类学研究感兴趣的研究生和本科生。

Understanding the relationship between genes and organism-level traits (phenotypes) is one of the most important problems in biology today. This relationship is especially important to study in primates, the closest living relatives of humans. The goal of this work is to examine this relationship in one well-studied population of wild primates, the baboons of the Amboseli basin in southern Kenya. Using a set of immune system genes, the researchers will (1) describe genetic variation in the regulatory regions of these genes (the regions that determine when and how much these genes are expressed), (2) determine the exact nature of the subset of genetic variation that affects how much these genes are expressed, and (3) connect this gene expression data to long-term behavioral and ecological data on the study population, to see how gene expression is modified by the environment. This represents ground-breaking work, because it is the first study to examine genetic variation and gene expression in a wild primate population, one for which extensive data already exist on organism-level traits and the environment in which they occur.Intellectual merit. The proposed work has great potential to advance understanding of the relationship between genes, organism-level traits, and the environment. Further, it is one of the first modern molecular population genetic studies to be conducted on wild animals. In addition, it will generate novel data sets on population genetic and gene expression variation in a wild primate.Broader impacts. This research will support the production of samples and datasets of interest to the larger scientific community and will contribute to the ongoing training of three Kenyan field assistants. In addition, it will foster integrative research in the field through using molecular genetic techniques to address anthropological and evolutionary questions. Finally, it will contribute to the training of a graduate student and undergraduates interested in anthropological research.