RoL: FELS: RAISE: A Phylogenomically-Based Bioinspired Robotic Model Approach to Addressing the Evolution of Terrestrial Locomotion

生命法则的一个明显例子是进化趋同，即在生命之树上的独立物种谱系中出现相同或极其相似的适应。最近发现了一种盲眼洞穴鱼，它走路和爬瀑布的步态与蝾螈相似，并进化出了强健的骨盆带（一种臀部），这为研究活鱼的进化史上的关键事件提供了一个绝佳的机会。那次事件，脊椎动物入侵陆地，依赖于鳍到四肢的进化，使第一批脊椎动物能够在陆地上行走。这种转变的化石记录很少，现存的鱼类被认为缺乏研究四足行走起源所必需的形态学特征。这项研究将提供一个独特的机会，通过系统发育分析和数学和机器人建模，了解生命史上重大事件背后的机制：鱼类如何能够过渡到陆地生活方式并进化成四足动物。该项目的更广泛影响将促进不同贫困社区的高中学生的教学、培训和学习。该项目还将为研究生和本科生的科研培训提供机会，并为公众科学教育做出重要贡献。该项目由生物理事会和物理部生命系统物理项目共同资助。这项提议的工作将确定使鱼能够在陆地上行走的基因组、形态和机械特性。在对盲洞鱼隐鱼（Cryptotora thamicola）陆地行走功能形态学和运动学研究的基础上，本研究将从进化的角度研究balitorid泥鳅的系统基因组关系、形态、生物力学和行走性能。基因组测序将确定已知参与其他行走脊椎动物骨盆带形成的趋同遗传标记。形态学检查将揭示如何功能表型适应可以形成主要的基因组变化。通过与我们的实验生物力学数据比较验证的生物机器人模型生物将用于采用模块化方法来检查收敛性并回答盆腔形态对已灭绝的鳍-肢过渡形式和现代形式行走性能的影响的问题。提出的工作将区分从水生形式向陆地行走过渡所固有的基本物理特性。陆地盆腔带的进化对两栖动物、爬行动物、鸟类和哺乳动物的多样化至关重要；该研究使用收敛鱼类模型来研究支持脊椎动物身体抵抗重力的解剖结构的进化，并展示肌肉控制的调节如何在给定的骨骼形态范围内产生四足步态。这项研究将为形态创新趋同进化的机制提供科学的理解，允许基于基因组学、基础物理学和定义骨盆带对四足行走贡献的力学的基础上，发展四足动物大规模支持的统一原则。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

One clear example of a Rule of Life is evolutionary convergence, the occurrence of the same or extremely similar adaptations in independent lineages of species on the Tree of Life. The recent discovery of a blind cavefish that walks and climbs waterfalls with a salamander-like gait and has evolved a robust pelvic girdle (a kind of hip) offers an extraordinary opportunity to study, in living fishes, a pivotal event in evolutionary history. That event, the vertebrate invasion of land, hinged on the evolution of fins to limbs that enabled the first vertebrates to walk on land. The fossil record of this transition is scarce, and extant fishes were thought to lack the morphological features necessary for studying the origin of quadrupedal walking. This research will provide a unique opportunity to understand, through phylogenetic analysis and mathematical and robotic modeling, the mechanism underlying a major event in the history of life: how fishes were able to transition to a terrestrial lifestyle and evolve into the tetrapods. The broader impacts of this project will promote teaching, training, and learning for high school students in diverse and underprivileged communities. The project will also provide opportunities for graduate and undergraduate research training and make important contributions to public science education. This project was co-funded by the Biology Directorate and the Physics of Living Systems Program in the Physics Division. The proposed work will identify the genomic, morphological, and mechanical qualities that enable a fish to walk on land. Advancing previous work on the functional morphology and kinematics of terrestrial walking in the blind cave fish Cryptotora thamicola, the proposed research will examine the phylogenomic relationships, morphology, biomechanics, and walking performance from an evolutionary perspective among balitorid loaches. Genomic sequencing will determine convergent genetic markers known to be involved in pelvic girdle formation in other walking vertebrates. Morphological examinations will reveal how functional phenotypic adaptations can be formed by major genomic changes. A biorobotic model organism, validated through comparison with our experimental biomechanical data, will be used to take a modular approach to examining convergence and answering questions on the effect of pelvic morphology on walking performance in extinct fin-to-limb transitional forms and modern forms. The work proposed will discriminate the fundamental physical properties which are inherent to the transition to terrestrial walking from an aquatic form. The evolution of the terrestrial pelvic girdle was critical to the diversification of amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals; the proposed work uses a convergent fish model to study the evolution of anatomical structures that support the vertebrate body against gravity and show how modulation of muscular control can produce a tetrapodal gait within a given range of skeletal morphologies. This research will inform scientific understanding of the mechanisms underlying the convergent evolution of morphological innovation, allowing development of a unifying principle for mass support in tetrapods based on the genomics, basic physics, and mechanics that define the pelvic girdle contribution to quadrupedal walking.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.