Comparative Phylogeography of Small Mammals in Montane Africa: Integrating Climatic History and Genetic Variation

该项目调查上更新世的气候波动如何影响艾伯丁裂谷和肯尼亚裂谷中共同分布的五种东阿弗罗山小型哺乳动物的地理分布、人口历史和遗传结构。在非洲山地森林中，生境的扩张和收缩可能在形成哺乳动物群落的多样性方面发挥了重要作用，据预测，哺乳动物群落的分类和遗传多样性中心与冰川鼎盛时期充当持续森林避难所的地区重合。我的研究联合利用物种分布模型和多位点分子遗传数据来研究地理和气候过程如何驱动这些进化和生态过程。需要解决的问题包括分类群是否以及通过什么力量继续分化，以及历史情景如何塑造当前的谱系和遗传多样性模式。这项研究使用下一代测序来生成大量的基因座，这些基因座将允许对人口遗传模式进行精细推断，并对人口历史进行更精确的推断。这项工作的结果可以用来评估非洲山地哺乳动物物种在濒危的全球生物多样性热点中的保护和进化意义，并描绘出拥有历史上持久谱系的次区域。与肯尼亚研究人员的合作将提高发展中的非洲科学家的专业资历，并有助于对该项目中发现的新物种进行分类描述。这项研究还将为本科生介绍分子生物学研究中的新方法，包括适用于不同生物学和生物医学领域的系统基因组分析。

This project investigates how climatic fluctuations over the Plio-Pleistocene have affected the geographical distribution, demographic history and genetic structure of five species of co-distributed Eastern Afromontane small mammals in the Albertine and Kenyan Rifts. In African montane forests, the expansion and contraction of habitats may have played an important role in shaping the diversity of mammalian communities where centers of taxonomic and genetic diversity are predicted to be coincident with areas that acted as persistent forest refugia during glacial maxima. My study jointly utilizes species distribution models and multi-locus molecular genetic data to investigate how geographic and climatic processes have driven these evolutionary and ecological processes. Questions to be addressed include whether and by what forces taxa are continuing to diverge and how historical scenarios shaped current patterns of lineage and genetic diversity. This research uses next-generation sequencing to generate large numbers of loci that will allow fine-scale inference of population genetic patterns and more precise inferences regarding demographic history. Results from this work can be used to assess the conservation and evolutionary significance of African montane mammal species in an imperiled global biodiversity hotspot and delineate sub-regions that harbor historically persistent lineages. Collaboration with Kenyan researchers will enhance professional credentials of developing African scientists as well as contribute to taxonomic descriptions of new species being uncovered in this project. This study will also provide undergraduates an introduction to new approaches in molecular biological research, including phylogenomic analysis, that are applicable to diverse sets of biological and biomedical fields.