The molecular origin of quantitative morphological evolution

动物形态的多样性来自于形状的变化，大小的变化以及新角色的出现。这些进化变化的遗传起源开始得到很好的理解。然而，还有另一个层次的形态多样性，人们对它的了解要少得多，那就是性状的数量变化，比如装饰动物的连续的颜色或色调。在这个项目中，我们建议使用不同深浅的灰色来装饰与模式生物果蝇密切相关的果蝇物种的翅膀，以解决这个问题。利用果蝇遗传学的力量，我们将研究色素沉着基因的调节是如何在物种之间进行调整，以产生这种色素沉着强度的变化。

The diversity of animal forms results from changes in shape, changes in size, as well as the emergence of new characters. The genetic origin of these evolutionary changes begins to be well understood. There is, however, another level of morphological diversification that remains much less understood, the quantitative variation of characters, such as the continuous range of colors or hues that decorate animals. With this project, we propose to use the different shades of gray that ornate the wings of fruit flies species closely related to the model organism Drosophila melanogaster, to address this problem. Leveraging the power of Drosophila genetics, we will examine how the regulation of a pigmentation gene is tuned between species to produce this variation in pigmentation intensity.