DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Functional Tests of Hox Gene Evolution and the Pipefish Elongated Body Plan

这项研究将通过实验操纵基因表达，以了解细长鱼类（如海龙鱼）是如何获得形状的。和其他脊椎动物一样，鱼类也有一组保守的基因来调控发育。然而，从这个保守的设置，鱼类来在一个惊人的形状多样性。海龙是近300个物种的一部分，其中还包括海马，海龙和海鬣蜥，它们具有显著不同的特征，如长吻，管状身体和怀孕的雄性。这些鱼类提供了一个独特的机会来研究性状进化，因为在其他鱼类谱系中没有的字符的宽度和强大的实验工具的存在的基础上海龙基因组。该项目将涉及对来自科学领域代表性不足的群体的一名本科生进行研究培训。该项目还将与俄勒冈州大学自然和文化历史博物馆合作，促进公众宣传。该项目将把观察到的遗传和基因组变化与海湾海龙（Syngnathus scovelli）身体计划的形态变化联系起来。这项研究的重点是Hox转录因子及其周围的基因组内容的一个小子集，是重要的早期颅和中轴骨骼的发展。基于对海湾海龙基因组的分析，在海湾海龙谱系的进化过程中，一些关键的Hox基因和附近的调控元件已经丢失。利用先进的基因组和基因编辑技术，研究人员将在相关的硬骨鱼，三棘鱼（Gasterosteus aculeatus）和斑马鱼（Danio rerio）中进行功能测试，以检查基因和基因组内容丢失对鱼体计划的形态影响。这些损失对海龙类身体计划进化的可能影响将通过在斑马鱼和threespine棘鱼模型中使用CRISPR技术在这些正向基因中产生突变来确定。这项工作将推进我们对小说人物如何在深度保守的发展工具包的背景下进化的理解。

This research will experimentally manipulate gene expression to understand how elongate fishes, such as pipefish, get their shape. Fishes, like other vertebrates, share a conserved set of genes that regulate development. Yet from this conserved set, fishes come in an amazing diversity of shapes. Pipefish are part of a group of nearly 300 species that also includes seahorses, pipehorses, and seadragons, that have remarkably diverse traits such as long snouts, tube-like bodies, and males that become pregnant. These fishes provide a unique opportunity to study trait evolution because of the breadth of characters absent in other fish lineages and the existence of powerful experimental tools based on the pipefish genomic. This project will involve the research training of an undergraduate from groups underrepresented in science. It will also contribute to public outreach in collaboration with The Museum of Natural and Cultural History at the University of Oregon.This project will connect observed genetic and genomic changes with the morphological changes to the body plan in the Gulf pipefish (Syngnathus scovelli). This research focuses on a small subset of Hox transcription factors and their surrounding genomic content that are important in early cranial and axial skeleton development. Based on analysis of the Gulf pipefish genome, a few key Hox genes and nearby regulatory elements have been lost through the course of evolution in the Gulf pipefish lineage. Using advanced genomic and gene editing techniques, the researchers will perform functional tests in related teleost fish, the threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) and zebrafish (Danio rerio), to examine the morphological impact of the loss of genes and genomic content on the fish body plan. Possible effects of these losses on the evolution of the syngnathid body plan will be determined by creating mutations in these orthologous genes using the CRISPR technique in zebrafish and threespine stickleback fish models. This work will advance our understanding of how novel characters evolve in the context of the deeply conserved developmental toolkit.