Theoretical Population and Quantitative Genetics

理论种群和数量遗传学

• 批准号: 9119463
• 负责人: John Gillespie
• 金额: $ 21.4万
• 依托单位: University of California-Davis
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 1992
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1992-07-01 至 1996-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9119463&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Theoretical; Population; Quantitative; Genetics

The proposed research is a mathematical investigation into two broad areas of evolutionary theory: molecular evolution and the evolution of quantitative traits. The primary goal of the work on molecular evolution is to understand why there is so much variation in the genetic material, DNA, between species and between individuals within a species. One theory regards most of this variation as meaningless, having no functional consequences whatsoever. The theory that we are investigating argues that most of this variation does have biological consequences. Our approach to the problem involves a comparison of the predictions of each theory to the patterns observed in actual DNA sequences. This work is of potential value for our understanding of genetic variation susceptibility be viewed as due to many small mutations in DNA or to a few large ones? Our work is relevant to the former possibility. The primary goal of the work on quantitative genetics is to understand the genetic basis of variation in measurable traits, such as size or weight, both within and between species. The great conceptual problem in this work is to formalize the combined effects of many genes to interact with one another (through dominance and epistasis) in a way that adds biological relevance that was missing from previous models. Once the theory is in place, it will be used to investigate several problems of evolutionary interest. This work will be very important for agriculture, where practitioners require better theories of the genetic basis of traits, such as milk yield in cattle, that are of economic importance.

拟议的研究是对进化理论的两个广泛领域的数学调查：分子进化和数量性状的进化。 分子进化研究的主要目标是了解为什么物种之间以及物种内个体之间的遗传物质 DNA 存在如此大的变异。 一种理论认为大多数这种变化毫无意义，没有任何功能性后果。 我们正在研究的理论认为，大多数变异确实会产生生物学后果。 我们解决这个问题的方法包括将每种理论的预测与实际 DNA 序列中观察到的模式进行比较。这项工作对于我们理解遗传变异易感性具有潜在价值，遗传变异易感性是由DNA中的许多小突变还是一些大突变引起的？ 我们的工作与前一种可能性相关。 数量遗传学工作的主要目标是了解物种内部和物种之间可测量性状（例如体型或重量）变异的遗传基础。 这项工作中最大的概念问题是将许多基因相互作用的综合效应（通过显性和上位性）形式化，以增加以前模型中缺少的生物学相关性。 一旦该理论到位，它将被用来研究一些与进化有关的问题。 这项工作对于农业非常重要，农业从业者需要更好的关于具有经济重要性的性状遗传基础的理论，例如牛的产奶量。