Collaborative Proposal: Genomics across the speciation continuum in Heliconius butterflies

发现基因组如何随着种群的分化而变化，对于理解物种是如何产生的至关重要。当种群开始分化时，除了那些负责种群间适应性差异的区域外，它们的大部分基因组通常会保持非常相似。随着种群在物种形成过程中越来越相互隔离，它们的基因组也变得越来越不同，特别是在种群之间存在适应或生殖差异的区域。然而，研究人员对基因组中差异是如何、为什么以及在哪里累积的知之甚少。这个合作项目将利用基因组测序技术的最新进展，以及不同种族和蝴蝶物种之间的频繁杂交，来组装一幅关于基因组如何随时间变化的动态图片，并测试导致基因组以某些方式变化的特定假设。这个项目将提供物种形成的基因组结果的最全面的检查之一。有了这些知识，研究人员将开始了解导致新物种起源的基因变化类型。使用尖端的基因组测序技术，以及合作研究团队的专业知识，将导致开发新的分析工具和方法，这将对科学界广泛有用。培训和外展研讨会将为学生、教师和研究人员提供独特的机会，让他们获得如何利用基因组学研究自然界惊人多样性的实践经验。

Discovering how genomes change as populations diverge is essential to understanding how species arise. When populations begin to diverge most of their genomes will often remain very similar, except for those regions that are responsible for adaptive differences between the populations. As populations become increasingly isolated from each other during the speciation process, their genomes also become increasingly different from each other, particularly at regions that underlie adaptive or reproductive differences between the populations. Yet researchers know little about how, why, and where differences actually accumulate across the genome. This collaborative project will leverage recent advances in genome sequencing technology and the frequent hybridization between divergent races and species of Heliconius butterflies to assemble a moving picture of how genomes change over time and test specific hypotheses about what causes genomes to change in certain ways.This project will provide one of the most comprehensive examinations of the genomic consequences of speciation. With this knowledge, researchers will begin to understand the type of genetic changes that lead to the origin of new species. The use of cutting edge genome sequencing technology, along with the expertise of the collaborative research team, will lead to the development of new analytical tools and methods that will be broadly useful to scientific community. Training and outreach workshops will provide unique opportunities for students, teachers, and researchers to gain hands-on experience in how genomics can be used to study the amazing diversity found in nature.