Identifying and comparing developmental mechanisms conferring an adaptive transition in the evolution of compound eyes

大自然为我们提供了许多动物眼睛的设计和功能的蓝图。 不同的设计代表了每只动物对光线条件的适应，以及该动物生存所需的行为和需求。 了解这些蓝图和这些设计所需的基因将揭示基本的设计原则，这些原则可以为光检测和视觉人工系统的开发提供信息，并将提供信息，以促进对我们自己的人类眼睛的更深入了解。 这项研究将比较和确定基因活性的变化，这些变化允许从面粉甲虫眼睛中的光捕获细胞或光感受器的融合阵列到果蝇和蚊子眼睛中的光感受器细胞的开放阵列的简单结构变化。 这种眼睛形态的变化，让他对光线的感知能力大大增强。 将为来自科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）学科代表性不足的人群的学生提供研究和培训。 该项目还将提供小学和高中教师的机会，开发实验室活动，促进科学素养，以及促进科学素养在儿童museum.This项目解决了一个关键问题的进化/发育生物学的背景下复眼：如何保守的细胞过程修改，以产生适应性的过渡内的限制，构建一个功能组织？特别地，并列复眼的光感受器的单个感杆体以“融合”感杆体（例如赤拟谷盗的小眼）或“开放”感杆体（例如果蝇的小眼）构型组织。在并列复眼中，开放的横纹肌的存在与神经叠加的原理相结合，使光敏感度增加，而不会相应地丧失视觉敏锐度，因此允许一些物种多样化到以低光可用性为特征的小生境中。这项资助的目的是继续确定负责这种进化变化的不同细胞和分子机制，并测试类似的机制是否负责开放性横纹肌的趋同进化。其次，我们在赤拟谷盗中的工作也将扩大这种模式生物的遗传适应性，从而允许跨研究学科的更大访问和有用性。总的来说，研究提供的见解将揭示潜在的新的以及共享的细胞机制，导致适应性组织和视觉系统中观察到的巨大形态多样性。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

Nature has presented us with many blueprints for the design and function of animal eyes. The different designs represent adaptations to the light conditions that each animal experiences and the behaviors and needs required for survival of that animal. Understanding these blueprints and the genes required for these designs will reveal fundamental design principles that can inform the development of artificial systems for light detection and vision and will offer information to promote a deeper understanding of our own human eyes. This study will compare and determine the variations in gene activity that permitted a simple change in structure from a fused array of light-catching cells or photoreceptors in the flour beetle eye to an open array of photoreceptor cells in the eyes of fruit flies and mosquito. This change in eye form drastically increased the ability to sense light. Research and training will be provided to students from populations that are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematical (STEM) disciplines. The project will also provide elementary and high school teachers an opportunity to develop laboratory activities that promote science literacy as well promote scientific literacy in a children's museum.This project addresses a key question of evolutionary/developmental biology within the context of compound eyes: how are conserved cellular processes modified to produce adaptive transitions within the constraints of constructing a functional tissue? In particular, the individual rhabdomeres of photoreceptors of apposition compound eyes are either organized in a "fused" rhabdom (e.g. ommatidia of Tribolium) or "open" rhabdom (e.g. ommatidia of Drosophila) configuration. In apposition compound eyes, the presence of an open rhabdom combined with the principle of neural superposition enabled an increase in light sensitivity without a commensurate loss of visual acuity, and as such allowed some species to diversify into niches characterized by low light availability. The objectives of this grant are designed to continue to identify the different cellular and molecular mechanisms responsible for this evolutionary change and test whether similar mechanisms are responsible for the convergent evolution of open rhabdoms. Secondarily, our work in Tribolium will also expand the genetic amenability of this model organism, and thus permit greater access and usefulness across research disciplines. Overall, insights provided by the research will reveal potentially novel as well as shared cellular mechanisms that lead to adaptive organizations and to the tremendous morphological diversity observed in visual systems.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.