DISSERTATION RESEARCH: A Cytogenetic Characterization of the Mimulus Guttatus Genome

染色体结构和组成的变化是基因组进化的一个基本特征，也是许多生物物种形成的原因。尽管核型(染色体)变化很普遍，但产生和维持这些突变的进化力量却鲜为人知。这项拟议的研究将为植物进化研究中使用的一种新的模式系统--金丝猴(Mimulus Guttatus)提供染色体结构的描述。第一个目标是产生核型？对于该物种，即14对染色体的物理描述。第二个目标是整合物理信息和标记基因重组产生的不同基因组图谱。这项研究的第三个目的是在自然种群中调查一种特定的倒位，这是一种影响染色体大区域的突变。这些研究将对Mimulus研究界产生广泛影响。虽然基因组学方法已经得到了广泛的发展，但对基因组结构的研究却相对滞后。鉴于Mimulus内广泛的核型进化，为该项目开发的方法的进步将为遗传学研究开辟全新的途径。随着项目的进展，方法将通过出版物、科学会议和直接教程向本科生、研究生、博士后和教职员工传播。

Changes in chromosome structure and composition are an essential feature of genome evolution and also contribute to speciation in many organisms. Despite the prevalence of karyotypic (chromosomal) changes, the evolutionary forces that produce and maintain these mutations are poorly understood. The proposed studies will provide a description of chromosome structure for an emerging model system used in plant evolutionary research?Mimulus guttatus (yellow monkeyflower). The first aim is to produce the ?karyotype? for this species, i.e. the physical description of the 14 chromosome pairs. The second aim is to integrate the distinct genomic maps that have been produced by physical information and by genetic recombination of markers. The third aim of this research is to investigate a specific inversion, which is a kind of mutation that affects a large region of a chromosome, in natural populations. These studies will have broad impacts on the Mimulus research community. There has been extensive development of genomic methods for Mimulus, but the study of genome structure has lagged behind. Given the widespread karyotype evolution within Mimulus, the advancement of methods developed for this project will open entirely new avenues of genetic research. As the project progresses, methods will be disseminated to undergraduates, graduate students, post-docs, and faculty via publications, scientific meetings, and direct tutorials.