Collaborative Research: Phylogeny and diversification of the orb weaving spiders (Araneae)

这个项目将记录编织圆球蜘蛛的进化和多样化，以解决动物进化中的一个长期存在的问题，即主要编织圆球蜘蛛群体的起源和谱系关系。蜘蛛无处不在，种类繁多，完全是捕食性的，是最多样化和最迷人的动物群体之一，也是大多数陆地生态系统中占主导地位的节肢动物捕食者。球状编织者之所以引人注目，不仅是因为到目前为止描述的物种数量很多，还因为它们觅食网具有非凡的结构多样性，从经常被视为动物工程学顶峰的高度几何形状的陷阱设计，到片状和不规则的棒状网。要理解网络的进化和多样化，需要一个关于潜在的谱系模式--蜘蛛生命树--的经验性可靠的假说。传统的解剖学和遗传学方法还没有为这个问题提供令人信服的答案，因此我们对这个群体的进化的理解远远不能令人满意。该项目的研究人员将使用新的方法收集基因数据来回答这个长期存在的问题。这项研究的结果将会引起许多生物学家的兴趣，因为它将为研究各种各样的主题(丝绸生物学、性选择、毒液进化等)提供基因组资源和基本的比较基础。该项目将作为博士后、研究生和本科生研究人员的培训平台。此外，该项目将在哈佛自然历史博物馆举办一场公开展览，探索编织圆球蜘蛛的进化和生物学。一个由三名研究人员组成的团队将通过对120个转录本进行测序和使用现代DNA测序技术进行目标捕获方法来产生新的数据，以进行系统发育推断，该样本将包括所有21个已知编织圆球蜘蛛家族的代表和一系列不同的外部类群。这些基因组数据将被用来通过各种分析技术来推断编织圆球蜘蛛的家族级别的系统发育关系。PI还将分析85个选定的轮虫的形态矩阵，主要是基于手头已有的大量数据。该项目将利用系统发育分析的结果，对蜘蛛网的多样化和网状结构的演变进行比较分析。

This project will chronicle the evolution and diversification of the orb-weaving spiders to resolve a long-standing problem in animal evolution, that is, the origin and genealogical relationships of the main groups of orb-weavers. Ubiquitous, diverse, and exclusively predatory, spiders are one the most diverse and fascinating animal groups and the dominant arthropod predators in most terrestrial ecosystems. Orb-weavers are remarkable not only because of the high number of species described so far, but also because of the extraordinary architectural diversity of their foraging webs, ranging from highly geometric snare designs, often regarded as a pinnacle of animal engineering, to sheet and irregular cob webs. Understanding web evolution and diversification requires an empirically robust hypothesis about the underlying genealogical patterns?the spider tree of life. Traditional anatomical and genetic methods have not yet produced a compelling answer to this problem, and thus our understanding of the evolution of this group is far from satisfactory. The researchers of this project will use new methods to gather genetic data to answer this long-standing question. The results of this research will be of interest to many biologists working on any comparative aspects of orb-weavers because it will provide the genomic resources and the fundamental comparative basis for studies on a broad diversity of topics (silk biology, sexual selection, venom evolution, etc.). This project will serve as a training platform for postdoctoral, graduate and undergraduate researchers. In addition, the project will produce a public exhibit at the Harvard Museum of Natural History that will explore the evolution and biology of orb-weaving spiders.A team of three investigators, experts in arachnid systematics and with a long and productive history of research collaboration, will generate novel data through the sequencing of 120 transcriptomes and target capture approaches using modern DNA sequencing techniques for phylogenetic inference for a taxonomic sample of orbicularians that would include representatives of all 21 known families of orb-weavers and a diverse array of outgroups. These genomic data will be used to infer the family-level phylogenetic relationships of orb-weaving spiders using a diversity of analytical techniques. The PIs will also analyze a morphological matrix of 85 selected orbicularians largely based on extensive data already at hand. This project will use the results of the phylogenetic analyses to carry out comparative analyses of orb-weaver diversification and of web architecture evolution.