The enemy within: evolution and diversification of parasitoid flies

寄生蜂有一种独特的生活策略，它是捕食者和真正的寄生虫之间的中介，在这种策略中，它们以最终被杀死的单一宿主个体为食。它们在生态系统服务、害虫种群控制方面发挥着核心作用，并对人类产生了相当大的经济和医学影响。这些生物高度多样化和专门化，因为它们完全依赖宿主，必须克服宿主的防御和免疫力。虽然已有数千项研究调查了寄生昆虫在农业害虫生物防治中的作用，但只有少数几项研究探索了寄生昆虫适应和进化过程在寄主关系中的重要性。因此，寄主偏好是如何演变的，以及它如何影响寄生蜂多样化，目前还不清楚。我的研究计划的长期目标是揭示寄生昆虫的多样性、进化适应和寄主亲缘关系，并利用这些知识来探索特征进化和生态专业化之间的相互作用。由于种群内寄生性的反复独立进化，苍蝇是研究这一复杂生活史进化的最佳模型之一。在接下来的五年里，我将重点关注三个短期目标：(I)确定寄生蝇谱系的祖先生活史；(Ii)调查寄生蝇的关键呼吸创新及其对谱系多样化和生活史进化的意义；以及(Iii)探索寄生蝇的生态、行为和表型适应及其对寄主专门化的影响。我的研究计划将利用高通量测序中的现代进展，结合博物馆组学和新的比较方法的前景，探索生态和表型适应之间的相互作用及其对苍蝇多样化、宿主关联和专业化进化的意义。该计划将回答有关将物种特征与专门化进化联系起来的基本问题，同时拓宽我们对独立昆虫谱系获得寄生蜂生活史的进化机制的理解。该项目以数据为导向，以收集为重点的方法将极大地帮助我们理解生物多样性和影响生物多样性维持的因素，这在人类世时代是至关重要的。这项研究不仅将扩大我们对苍蝇多样性、进化、多样化和自然历史的了解，还将培训三名博士、一名硕士和两名理科学生掌握最先进的分析和统计技术，这些技术横跨昆虫学、基因组学、生物信息学和进化生物学，被认为是学术、政府和工业部门非常可取的技能。

Parasitoids have a unique life-strategy that is an intermediary between predators and true parasites, in which they feed on a single host individual that is ultimately killed. They play a central role in ecosystem services, pest population control, and have considerable economic and medical impact to humans. These organisms are highly diverse and specialized, as they are completely dependent on the host and have to overcome its defenses and immunity. Although thousands of studies have investigated the role of parasitoid insects in the biological control of agricultural pests, only a handful have explored the significance of parasitoid adaptations and evolutionary processes in their host associations. Therefore, it is still unclear how host preference evolves and how it influences parasitoid diversification. The long-term goal of my research program is to unravel the diversification, evolutionary adaptations, and host affinities of parasitoid insects, and use this knowledge to explore the interplay between trait evolution and ecological specialization. Due to the repeated independent evolution of parasitoidy within the group, flies represent one the best models to investigate the evolution of this complex life history. In the next five years, I will focus on three short-term objectives: (i) determine the ancestral life histories of parasitoid fly lineages; (ii) investigate the key respiratory innovations of parasitoid flies and their significance to lineage diversification and life history evolution; and (iii) explore the ecological, behavioural, and phenotypic adaptations of parasitoid flies and their consequences to host specialization. My research program will use modern advances in high-throughput sequencing, combined with the prospects of museomics and new comparative methods, to explore the interplay between ecological and phenotypic adaptations and their significance to fly diversification, host associations, and the evolution of specialization. This program will answer fundamental questions about linking species' traits to the evolution of specialization, while broadening our understanding of the evolutionary mechanisms by which independent lineages of insects acquired parasitoid life histories. The data-driven and collections-focused approach of this program will critically inform our understanding of organismal diversity and the factors influencing biodiversity maintenance, essential in the Anthropocene age. This research will not only expand our knowledge of fly diversity, evolution, diversification, and natural history, but also train three PhD, one MSc, and two BSc students in state-of-the-art analytical and statistical techniques that cut across the disciplines of entomology, genomics, bioinformatics, and evolutionary biology, and are considered highly desirable skills in the academic, governmental, and industry sectors.