Encoding Knowledge in the Genome

婴儿天生就会被长得像脸的物体吸引，这表明他们知道一张脸是什么样子的 却从未见过一只。基因组如何编码组装神经电路的指令 天生就能识别特定的复杂图案，比如一张脸？模式识别在很多方面都是至关重要的 人类行为的缺陷和认知能力的缺陷与许多疾病有关(例如： 人格失认症、自闭症谱系障碍、不同的神经退行性疾病、最近的中风)。 了解指定先天识别回路发展的遗传特征将 为治疗模式识别障碍提供了新的途径。目前，这样一个详细的链接 基因组和神经回路规范之间的关系仍然是交叉点上的一个基本谜团 基因组学、神经科学和行为学。为了阐明这个问题，我们需要确定一个基因组是如何 它编码神经电路，天生识别特定的复杂模式，不同于 缺乏同样识别能力的祖先。这是一个主要的障碍，因为大多数例子 与生俱来的模式识别能力，如灵长类的面部识别，往往在进化上是古老的 因此，很难对其进行基因解剖。目前的工作提出要研究遗传 在一种独特的纸蜂物种中产生了新颖的面部识别能力的变化。这个 纸黄蜂Polistes fuscatus具有高度可变的面部图案，它们用来识别个体 在它们的小圈子里筑巢。像人类一样，脸对这些黄蜂来说是特殊的刺激，但它们的 近亲物种缺乏专门的面部加工。剖析了新近致病的遗传基础 由于其极低的遗传性，青海对虾的先天人脸识别进化是可能的。 与亲缘关系的分化，高重组率和较小的基因组大小，这些都有利于 识别编码电路特异性的特定基因变化。人类相对简单的大脑 黄蜂进一步帮助了这项任务。这些研究将结合面部选择神经元的成像， 种内和种间的比较发育转录组学和比较基因组学 破译识别特定复杂模式的电路组装过程中涉及的遗传元素。 这种全基因组的方法将提供对指定回路所涉及的基因座的公正的看法 在电路中编码信息的发育和基因组特征。此外，拟议的工作 将把这种独特的黄蜂物种发展成为基因组学的强大无脊椎动物模型 复杂的、个体分化的社会行为的神经生物学，这种行为在昆虫中很少见，但 脊椎动物和人类社会的基石。然而，最重要的是，这项研究将 有助于更深入和丰富地理解基因组如何编码神经电路的设计 特定的识别任务。

Infants are innately attracted to face-like objects, suggesting that they ‘know’ what a face looks like without ever having seen one. How does the genome encode instructions for assembling neural circuits that innately recognize specific complex patterns, such as a face? Pattern recognition is critical for much of human behavior and deficits in recognition abilities are associated with numerous disorders (e.g. prosopagnosia, autism spectrum disorder, different neurodegenerative diseases, recent stroke). Understanding the genetic features that specify the development of innate recognition circuits will provide new avenues for treatments of pattern recognition disorders. Presently, such a detailed link between the genome and neural circuit specification remains a fundamental mystery at the intersection of genomics, neuroscience and behavior. To shed light on the problem we need to identify how a genome that encodes neural circuits, which innately recognizing a specific complex pattern, differs from an ancestor that lacked the same recognition abilities. This presents a major hurdle as most examples of innate pattern recognition abilities, such as face recognition in primates, tend to be evolutionarily ancient and as a result very difficult to genetically dissect. The present work proposes to study the genetic changes that have given rise to novel facial recognition abilities in a unique species of paper wasp. The paper wasp, Polistes fuscatus, has highly variable facial patterns that they use to recognize individual nestmates within their small societies. Like humans, faces are special stimuli for these wasps, but their closely related sister species lack specialized facial processing. Dissecting the genetic basis of the recent evolution of innate recognition of faces in P. fuscatus is possible because of its remarkably low genetic divergence with relatives, high recombination rates and small genome size which all facilitate identification of specific genetic changes that encode circuit specificity. The relatively simple brains of wasps further aid the task. The studies will use a combination of imaging of face-selective neurons, comparative developmental transcriptomics within and between species and comparative genomics to decipher the genetic elements involved in assembling circuits that recognize a specific complex pattern. This genome-wide approach will provide an unbiased view of the of loci involved in specifying circuit development and the genomic features encoding information in circuits. Additionally, the proposed work will develop this unique species of wasp as a powerful invertebrate model for the genomics and neurobiology of complex, individually-differentiated social behaviors that are rare among insects but are the cornerstone of vertebrate and human societies. Most importantly, however, this research will contribute to a deeper and richer understanding of how genomes encode the design of neural circuits for specific recognition tasks.