Collaborative Research: Genetic Architecture and the Evolution of Recombination

合作研究：遗传结构和重组的进化

• 批准号: 1355084
• 负责人: Christina Burch
• 金额: $ 37.87万
• 依托单位: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-04-15 至 2020-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1355084&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Genetic; Architecture; Evolution

Most organisms alive today have exchanged genes with organisms of their own species in their recent evolutionary history. However, the reasons for the evolutionary success of genetic exchange are unclear. This research will investigate the possibility that genetic exchange selects for types of interactions between genes that, in turn, select for continued genetic exchange. The overarching goal is to develop new empirical and modeling frameworks for studying the evolution of genetic exchange. The research will (1) extend an existing mathematical model of virus replication to capture the short-term evolutionary dynamics of experimental virus populations, (2) determine whether gene interactions evolve in the virus model as predicted from simpler, less realistic, models, and (3) experimentally test the predictions obtained from the mathematical model in real virus populations.The evolution of genetic exchange is one of the oldest and most intractable problems in biology. In addition, the nature of gene interactions is a central focus for several areas of biology, including physiology and systems biology. The study of gene interactions will have far-reaching consequences for understanding complex biological processes, including human diseases. The completion of this work will generate new software tools that can be used to test a variety of additional hypotheses about evolutionary processes. Finally, this award will be used to expand a Pen Pal Program piloted in 2013 in which graduate students engage middle school students in the process of scientific discovery by writing back and forth about their research and other scientific interests.

如今，大多数活着的生物都在其最近的进化史上与自己物种的生物交换了基因。 但是，遗传交换进化成功的原因尚不清楚。 这项研究将研究遗传交换为基因之间的相互作用类型选择的可能性，而基因又选择持续的遗传交换。总体目标是开发新的经验和建模框架来研究遗传交换的演变。 该研究将（1）扩展病毒复制的现有数学模型，以捕获实验病毒群体的短期进化动力学，（2）确定基因相互作用是否在病毒中的基因相互作用进化为简单，较不现实的模型，模型和（3）实验性地测试来自实际病毒群中的数学模型中的预测。此外，基因相互作用的性质是生物学和系统生物学在内的多个生物学领域的核心重点。 对基因相互作用的研究将对理解复杂的生物学过程（包括人类疾病）产生深远的影响。 这项工作的完成将生成新的软件工具，可用于测试有关进化过程的其他其他假设。 最后，该奖项将用于扩大2013年驾驶的笔PAL计划，其中研究生通过来回写作他们的研究和其他科学利益，使中学生参与科学发现的过程。