IRFP: Towards Global Synthesis of Mud Crabs: Utilizing Phylogenetic Relatedness to Derive a Biologically Meaningful Classification and Infer Historical Origins of Cryptogenic Taxa

国际研究奖学金项目使美国科学家和工程师能够在国外进行9至24个月的研究。该计划的奖励为联合研究提供了机会，并利用独特或互补的设施、专业知识和国外的实验条件。该奖项将支持Brent P. Thoma博士与Peter K. L. Ng教授在新加坡共和国新加坡国立大学莱佛士生物多样性研究博物馆开展为期24个月的研究。本项目旨在阐明地理上广泛分布和分类上多样化的泥蟹超科黄总科（Xanthoidea）的进化关系。新、旧大陆分类群研究的整合代表了迄今为止最大的泥蟹遗传数据集，其中包含近300个物种的10个基因数据。这些信息使得我们能够在全球范围内推断泥蟹的进化关系，以便：1)测试目前用来描述各种黄原体分类群的形态特征是否反映了进化相关性，还是趋同的结果；2)确定黄原体系统发育主干上的短分支长度是否代表了发生在泥蟹进化早期的快速辐射事件。3)推断潜在入侵或隐源分类群的历史起源。除了增加对泥蟹进化的了解所带来的明显好处外，这项研究还将有助于PI与莱佛士生物多样性研究博物馆和新加坡国立大学（Peter K. L. Ng教授、Joelle C. Y. Lai博士和J. C. Mendoza博士）以及美国路易斯安那州拉斐特拉斐特路易斯安那大学（Darryl L. Felder教授）的研究小组开展新的国际合作。

The International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct nine to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad. This award will support a twenty-four-month research fellowship by Dr. Brent P. Thoma to work with Prof. Peter K. L. Ng at the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Republic of Singapore.This project aims to clarify the evolutionary relationships of the geographically widespread and taxonomically diverse superfamily of mud crabs known as Xanthoidea. The integration of studies on New and Old World taxa represents the largest genetic dataset of mud crabs, to date, with data for 10 genes from nearly 300 species. This information allows for the inference of evolutionary relationships of the mud crabs on a global scale in an effort to 1) test if the morphological characteristics currently used to delineate various xanthoid taxa reflect evolutionary relatedness or are the result of convergence, 2) determine if short branch lengths along the backbone of the xanthoid phylogeny are representative of a rapid radiation event that occurred early in the evolution of the mud crabs, and 3) infer the historical origins of potentially invasive or cryptogenic taxa.In addition to the obvious benefit of increased knowledge about the evolution of mud crabs, this research will help develop new international collaboration between the PI and research groups at Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research and the National University of Singapore, Republic of Singapore (Prof. Peter K. L. Ng, Dr. Joelle C. Y. Lai, and Dr. J. C. Mendoza) and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in Lafayette, Louisiana, USA (Prof. Darryl L. Felder).