CAREER: Integrating phylogenetics and development to investigate character evolution in hydrozoans

本项目旨在促进我们对水生动物进化变化的发育基础的理解。水生动物属于线虫门，这是一组海洋无脊椎动物，代表了最早的动物群体之一。尽管水生动物只由两个细胞层和几种不同的细胞类型组成，但它们在整体身体形态和生命周期上表现出令人难以置信的多样性。这项研究将检验这一假设，即水生动物的多样性在很大程度上是发育基因调控的进化变化的结果。这将通过对候选基因的关键形态特征和发育基因表达模式的检查来进行研究。这些特征状态和基因表达模式将在系统发育框架内进行分析，使用的方法可以测试基因表达变化与形态特征之间的相关性。这项研究不仅将加深我们对形态进化的遗传基础的理解，而且将为在进化框架内研究发育生物学提供创新的方法。这些研究方法将被整合到系统发育、进化和发展课程中。几名本科生、两名研究生和一名博士后研究员将接受该项目的培训。这项研究的数据将被用于为一个现有的教育网站开发练习，旨在帮助那些教授进化论的人。

This project aims to advance our understanding of the developmental basis of evolutionary change in Hydrozoa. Hydrozoans belong to the phylum Cnidaria, a group of marine invertebrates that represent one of the earliest animal groups. Although hydrozoans are constructed from just two cell layers and a few different cell types, they display incredible diversity in overall body form and life cycles. This study will test the hypothesis that hydrozoan diversity is in large part a result of evolutionary changes in the regulation of developmental genes. This will be investigated through examination of key morphological characters and developmental gene expression patterns in candidate genes. These character states and gene expression patterns will be analyzed within a phylogenetic framework, using methods that can test for correlations between changes in gene expression and morphological characters. This research will not only enhance our understanding of the genetic basis for morphological evolution, but will provide innovative methods for studying developmental biology within an evolutionary framework. These research methods will be integrated into courses on phylogenetics, evolution and development. Several undergraduates, two graduate students and a postdoctoral researcher will be trained on this project. Data from this research will be used to develop exercises for an existing educational website aimed to help those who teach evolution.