NSFDEB-NERC: The evolution of visual systems during major life history transitions in frogs

作为动物的主要感官之一，视觉在生物生活的几个方面起着重要作用，包括寻找食物、躲避捕食者和寻找配偶。眼睛的功能如何取决于生物体的生态和生物学特征，例如，特定物种是夜行性的、生活在地下的还是变态的，例如，从蝌蚪到成年青蛙的转变。本项目以青蛙为模型组，通过整合这些生物的形态学、遗传学和生理学信息，来研究视觉的进化。该项目的结果将为视觉系统在适应新环境挑战的新颖解决方案的进化中所起的作用提供深入的见解，这是理解整个生命之树中物种多样化原因的一个重要主题。为了实现这些目标，该项目依靠国际合作，从全球各地采集青蛙样本。本科研究人员将接受研究培训，并在产生科学成果方面获得帮助。这个项目将利用两个主要的公共博物馆的外展，通过展览和教育电子书向公众传播新的发现。本项目整合形态学、分子和光谱数据，在古代和现代两个时间尺度上研究青蛙视觉系统的进化。分子进化研究将为视觉进化提供基因组视角，并期望视觉取向的青蛙表现出更高水平的自然选择、基因复制和视觉基因保留。研究水生蝌蚪和陆生成年动物视觉的生理和分子基础将揭示视觉系统在变态过程中如何适应不同的视觉环境。这些广泛的研究将为针对自然历史特征转变的更有针对性的调查提供一个框架。利用高度多样化的非洲芦苇蛙，该项目将测试鲜艳颜色的进化是否与最大化物种识别的视觉系统多样性有关。最后，本项目将研究人类向地下生活的过渡如何塑造了视觉系统的形态和遗传成分，并期望眼睛的减少伴随着视觉基因的使用减少或失活。该项目采用了一种综合的方法，将提供详细和全面的见解，以了解整个生活史过渡的视觉进化，以解决我们对脊椎动物视觉进化的整体理解中的中心空白。

As one of the primary senses in animals, vision plays an important role in several aspects of an organism's life, including finding food, avoiding predators, and seeking mates. How the eye functions depends on the ecological and the biological characteristics of the organism, such as whether particular species are nocturnal, live underground, or metamorphose, e.g., the transition from a tadpole to adult frog. This project uses frogs as a model group of species to investigate the evolution of vision, by integrating information on the morphology, genetics, and physiology of these organisms. Results from the project will provide insight into the role that vision systems play in the evolution of novel, adaptive solutions to new environmental challenges, a topic of primary importance in understanding causes of species diversification throughout the tree of life. To achieve these goals, this project relies on international collaboration to sample frogs from across the globe. Undergraduate researchers will receive research training and aid in producing the scientific results. This project will leverage the outreach of two major public museums to disseminate the new discoveries to the general public via exhibits and educational e-books.This project integrates morphological, molecular, and spectral data to investigate the evolution of vision systems in frogs at both ancient and recent timescales. Molecular evolutionary studies will provide a genomic perspective on vision evolution with the expectation that visually-oriented frogs exhibit greater levels of natural selection, gene duplication, and retention of vision genes. Characterizing the physiology and molecular underpinnings of vision in species with aquatic tadpoles and terrestrial adults will reveal how the visual system adapts to distinct visual environments during metamorphosis. These broad studies will provide a framework for more focused investigations that target transitions in natural history characteristics. Using the hyperdiverse African reed frogs, this project will test whether the evolution of bright coloration is associated with visual system diversity that maximizes species recognition. Finally, this project will investigate how transitions to life below ground have shaped the morphological and genetic components of visual systems with the expectation that eye reduction accompanies a reduction in use or inactivation of vision genes. This project takes an integrative approach that will provide detailed and comprehensive insight into vision evolution across life history transitions to address a central gap in our overall understanding of vertebrate vision evolution.