Speciation without a good reason: disentangling the radiation of primates living in limestone habitat

物种形成是进化的关键过程之一，导致进化谱系的不同轨迹，从而产生不同的适应性、表型和生理学，最终导致我们所知的无数令人惊叹的物种的生物多样性。然而，尽管在物种形成中起作用的因素众所周知，但在大多数物种辐射的情况下，其差异化进程背后的驱动因素仍然难以捉摸。幸运的是，近年来，基因组学革命为研究人员提供了新的工具，使种群基因组学和详细的分子生态学研究成为可能，从而能够以前所未有的细节剖析物种的进化历史和生态学。我们将使用这些基因组技术，以调查辐射的一个独特的和高度濒危的一组旧世界的猴子，石灰岩叶猴（Tracypithecus francoisi物种组）的东亚和东南亚。我们将对七种石灰岩叶猴物种中的每一种以及几种外类群物种的几个个体的完整基因组进行测序，并使用这些数据来调查该物种的人口统计学和适应性进化历史。此外，我们将研究每三种石灰岩和热带雨林叶猴的植物饮食和肠道微生物植物群，以尽可能详细地揭示生态差异。我们将联合收割机这些数据与已知的数据，生态和行为的这些物种，以及古环境和气候数据，从他们发生的地区，从而解开他们的进化历史和背后的原因，他们的辐射。

Speciation represents one of the key processes in evolution, resulting in different trajectories of evolutionary lineages, thereby creating distinct adaptations, phenotypes and physiologies and ultimately resulting in the biodiversity of the countless and amazing species as we know it. Yet, although the factors playing a role in speciation are generally known, in most cases of species radiations, the drivers behind their differentiation process have remained elusive. Fortunately, in recent years, the genomic revolution has provided researchers with new tools that make both population genomic and detailed molecular-ecological studies possible, allowing to dissect the evolutionary history and ecology of species in unprecedented detail. We will use these genomic technologies in order to investigate the radiation of a unique and highly endangered group of Old World monkeys, the limestone langurs (Trachypithecus francoisi species group) of East and Southeast Asia. We will sequence complete genomes for several individuals from each of the seven limestone langur species as well as from several outgroup species and use these data to investigate both the demographic and adaptive evolutionary history of the species. In addition, we will study both the plant diet and gut microbial flora of each three species of limestone and rainforest langurs to reveal ecological differences in as much detail as possible with current techniques. We will combine these data with known data on ecology and behavior of these species as well as palaeo-environmental and -climatic data from the region they occur and thereby disentangle both their evolutionary history and the causes behind their radiation.