Convergent evolution of color patterns through changes in different genes

不同的动物往往进化出相似的适应，反映了作用于不同物种的相似的功能压力。这种现象被称为收敛进化，尽管一个多世纪以来生物学家已经广泛承认了这一现象，但其遗传和分子基础仍然知之甚少。我们之前的工作表明，看似相同的特征可以通过不同物种中不同基因的变化来进化。在这个项目中，将使用基因组学、分子遗传学、胚胎学和比较方法相结合的方法，在几个相似特征已经进化的独立案例中确定每一个负责基因。这项工作将解决两个关键问题。首先，动物发育的哪些特征使其能够将不同的基因变化转化为外表相同的形态特征？其次，既然进化显然可以采取不同的遗传路径来产生相同的特征，那么进化所采取的过程实际上主要是由有机体的内在特征、其种群历史还是已知在遗传变异起源中发挥重要作用的变幻莫测的机缘决定的？随着合成生物学(具有理想特性的设计或人造生物有机体)开始从猜测走向现实，理解自然遗传路径的灵活连接，允许对同一功能问题的多种解决方案，将为合成基因网络的设计提供信息。该项目使用的各种技术和综合方法将促进对年轻科学家的培训，他们将能够理解生物系统的内部工作原理，并将这些经验教训应用于实际问题。

Different animals often evolve similar adaptations, reflecting similar functional pressures acting on different species. This phenomenon is known as convergent evolution and, although it has been widely acknowledged by biologists for more than a century, its genetic and molecular basis remains poorly understood. Our previous work has shown that seemingly identical traits can evolve by changes in different genes in different species. In this project, a combination of genomic, molecular-genetic, embryological, and comparative approaches will be used to identify the responsible genes in each of several independent cases where similar traits have evolved. Two key questions will be addressed by this work. First, what features of animal development allow it to translate different genetic changes into outwardly identical morphological characters? Second, since evolution can clearly take different genetic paths to produce the same trait, is the course it actually takes determined primarily by the intrinsic features of the organism, by its population history, or by the vagaries of chance that are known to play a large role in the origin of genetic variation? As synthetic biology (the design or artificial biological organisms with desirable properties) begins to move from speculation to reality, understanding the flexible wiring of natural genetic pathways that permits multiple solutions to the same functional problem will inform the design of synthetic gene networks. The wide variety of techniques and integrative approaches used in this project will advance the training of young scientists who will be able to understand the inner workings of biological systems and to apply these lessons to practical problems.