The enemy within: evolution and diversification of parasitoid flies

寄生虫有一个独特的生活策略，是捕食者和真正的寄生虫之间的中介，其中它们以最终被杀死的单个宿主个体为食。它们在生态系统服务、害虫种群控制方面发挥着核心作用，并对人类产生重大的经济和医疗影响。这些生物是高度多样化和专业化的，因为它们完全依赖于宿主，必须克服其防御和免疫力。虽然有成千上万的研究调查了寄生性昆虫在农业害虫生物防治中的作用，但只有少数研究了寄生性昆虫适应和进化过程在其宿主协会中的意义。因此，目前还不清楚寄主偏好是如何演变的，以及它是如何影响寄生蜂多样化的。我的研究计划的长期目标是解开多样化，进化适应性和寄生昆虫的宿主亲和力，并利用这些知识来探索性状进化和生态专业化之间的相互作用。由于寄生虫性在群体内重复独立进化，苍蝇代表了研究这种复杂生活史进化的最佳模型之一。在未来的五年里，我将专注于三个短期目标：（一）确定寄生蝇谱系的祖先生活史;（二）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;（三）探索寄生蝇的生态，行为和表型适应及其对宿主专业化的影响。我的研究计划将利用高通量测序的现代进展，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，宿主协会和专业化进化的意义。该计划将回答有关将物种特征与专业化进化联系起来的基本问题，同时拓宽我们对独立谱系昆虫获得寄生生活史的进化机制的理解。该计划的数据驱动和以收集为重点的方法将为我们对生物多样性和影响生物多样性维护的因素的理解提供重要信息，这在人类世时代至关重要。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，而且还将培养三名博士，一名理学硕士和两名理学学士学生掌握最先进的分析和统计技术，这些技术跨越昆虫学，基因组学，生物信息学和进化生物学的学科，并被认为是学术，政府和工业部门非常理想的技能。

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.