Collaborative Research: Molecular basis of life history evolution in Drosophila

人类和其他生物在基因上有着巨大的变化，甚至在寿命和生育能力等特征上也是如此。在过去的十年里，通过在实验动物身上突变这些基因并观察由此产生的影响，人们发现了影响寿命和生育能力的基因。例如，控制胰岛素信号的基因突变可以使蠕虫、苍蝇和老鼠的寿命增加100%或更多。这些结果引出了一个问题，即相同的基因是否导致了个体、种群和物种之间在寿命和生育力方面的自然变异。该项目通过发现人工选择的和自然种群的生活史差异的遗传基础来解决这个问题，果蝇是一种强大的遗传技术可用的昆虫。表达谱、基因图谱和新的统计技术将被用于识别导致人群寿命和生育差异的基因。导致寿命和生育变异的基因对人类健康和福祉有重大影响。大多数提出的候选基因在昆虫和哺乳动物（包括人类）之间是共享的，了解哪些基因导致非近亲繁殖动物的变异对生物医学具有重要意义。其他重要的影响将包括在所有三位研究者的实验室和在两个小型研讨会上培训本科生和研究生研究人员。这将包括所有参与者，以及开发新的分析工具。

Humans and other organisms are enormously genetically variable, even for traits like lifespan and fertility. During the past decade, genes affecting longevity and fertility have been discovered by mutating those genes in laboratory animals and observing the resulting effects. For example, mutations in genes controlling insulin signaling can increase the longevity of worms, flies, and mice by 100% or more. These results beg the question of whether the same genes are responsible for natural variation among individuals, populations, and species in longevity and fertility. This project addresses this question by discovering the genetic basis of life history differences in artificially-selected and in natural populations of an insect, Drosophila melanogaster, for which powerful genetic techniques are available. Expression profiling, genetic mapping, and new statistical techniques will be deployed to identify the genes contributing to longevity and fertility differences between populations. Genes causing variation in longevity and fertility have significant impact on human health and well being. Most of the proposed candidate genes are shared between insects and mammals (including humans), and knowing which genes cause variation in non-inbred animals has important implications for biomedicine. Other significant effects will include training of undergraduate and graduate researchers in the laboratories of all three investigators, and at two ?mini-symposia? that will include all participants, and development of new analytical tools.