EAPSI: Forging Trans-Pacific Partnerships to Investigate Terrestrial Transitions in Tropical Land Crabs

了解生物体如何利用遗传变异来适应新的栖息地是进化生物学中的一个悬而未决的问题。陆蟹是一个反复殖民陆地栖息地的群体，但目前对潜在的遗传机制知之甚少，这些遗传机制导致了令人印象深刻的身体和生理适应，使它们能够在陆地上成功生活。这个项目将连接研究人员与世界之一？新加坡国立大学（NUS）的Peter Ng教授是陆蟹生物学领域的权威，他还在甲壳动物学会（TCS）的年中会议上与甲壳动物进化生物学领域的主要研究人员进行了交流。研究人员将检视李光前自然历史博物馆的螃蟹藏品，并与吴教授及其研究小组合作，了解螃蟹的生物学和分类学。该项目的结果将为更大的研究项目奠定坚实的基础，该项目旨在进一步了解生物学中最重要的生命史转变之一。对于她的论文工作，研究人员计划通过整合分类学，遗传学和下一代测序技术来探索短尾目陆蟹表现出的海洋到陆地过渡的机制，但在进行这个更大的项目之前，她将首先构建一个坚实的分类学和系统的理解。对于EAPSI，研究人员将在世界的指导下接受这些主题的培训？新加坡国立大学的吴彼得教授是螃蟹系统学的权威。她将从保存在LKCNHM的陆地螃蟹标本中检查和收集DNA子样本，该标本是世界上保存最多的陆地螃蟹标本之一。此外，她还将出席TCS的年中会议，并与其他癌症学家建立网络，以形成更多的国际合作和伙伴关系。该奖项是东亚和太平洋夏季研究所计划下的一个奖项，支持美国研究生的夏季研究，由NSF和新加坡国家研究基金会共同资助。

Understanding how organisms utilize genetic variation to adapt to new habitats is an open question in evolutionary biology. Land crabs are a group that have repeatedly colonized terrestrial habitats, yet little is currently known about the underlying genetic machinery that has led to the impressive physical and physiological adaptations that have allowed them to live successfully on land. This project will connect the researcher with one of the world?s leading authorities on land crab biology, Professor Peter Ng at the National University of Singapore (NUS), and also with leading researchers in the field of crustacean evolutionary biology at the mid-year meeting of The Crustacean Society (TCS). The researcher will examine crabs housed in the collections at the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum (LKCNHM), and will collaborate with Prof. Ng and his research group to learn about the biology and taxonomy of the crabs. The results from this project will serve as a solid foundation for a larger research project that seeks to further understand one of the most important life-history transitions in biology. For her dissertation work, the researcher plans to explore the mechanisms underlying the marine-to-terrestrial transition exhibited by brachyuran land crabs by integrating taxonomy, phylogenetics, and next-generation sequencing technologies, but prior to undertaking this larger project, she will first construct a solid taxonomic and systematic understanding of the group. For EAPSI, the researcher will be trained in these topics under the guidance of the world?s leading authority in crab systematics, Prof. Peter Ng at the NUS. She will examine and collect DNA subsamples from the land crab specimens preserved at the LKCNHM, which houses one of the largest collection of preserved land crabs in the world. Additionally, she will present at the mid-year meeting of TCS and network with other carcinologists to form additional international collaborations and partnerships.This award under the East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes program supports summer research by a U.S. graduate student and is jointly funded by NSF and the National Research Foundation of Singapore.