Collaborative Research: Genetic Determinants of MammalianLlimb Biodiversity

生物学的一个主要目标是确定形成形态和结构进化的过程。为了实现这一重要目标，该项目将采用一种创新的、比较的方法来研究肢体发育过程中的进化变化（肢体形成的过程）如何促进三种哺乳动物：蝙蝠、负鼠和老鼠的不同肢体的产生。哺乳动物的肢体是实现这一目标的理想系统，因为哺乳动物进食、移动和行为的方式取决于其肢体的形式。因此，从蝙蝠的翅膀到鲸鱼的鳍状肢再到马的蹄子，哺乳动物肢体的多样化对这个群体的生态和进化成功至关重要。通过使用传统和下一代基因分析，该项目将确定基因表达的具体变化（例如，基因何时开启和关闭，以及在什么水平上开启和关闭），这些变化启动并推动了哺乳动物物种之间肢体形式的分化。这些知识将垂直推进我们对发育过程如何限制和促进某些肢体形式的进化的理解，从而影响哺乳动物的进化。此外，由于人类是哺乳动物，这个项目将直接促进我们对塑造我们自己的进化史的过程的理解。

A major goal of biology is to identify the processes that shape the evolution of form and structure. To pursue this important goal, this project will take an innovative, comparative approach to investigate how evolutionary changes during limb development (the process by which the limb forms) contribute to the generation of the divergent limbs of three mammals: bats, opossums, and mice. The mammal limb is an ideal system with which to pursue this goal because the way that a mammal feeds, moves and behaves is dependent upon the form of its limbs. As such, from the wings of bats to the flippers of whales to the hooves of horses, the diversification of the mammal limb has been crucial to the ecological and evolutionary success of the group. Through use of traditional and next generation genetic analyses, this project will identify the specific changes in gene expression (e.g., when genes are turned on and off, and at what levels) that initiate and drive the divergence of limb form among mammalian species. This knowledge will vertically advance our understanding of how the process of development constrains and facilitates the evolution of certain limb forms, and thereby impacts mammalian evolution. Furthermore, as humans are mammals, this project will directly advance our understanding of the processes that have shaped our own evolutionary history.